M  A  R  T  Y  R    A  G  E 


UNI  TED    STATE  S, 


BY    HARRIET    MARTINEAU, 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 

REINHARD  S.  SPECK  COLLECTION 

of 

HARRIET  MARTINEAU 


THE 


MARTYR     AGE 


UNITED     STATES 


•''• 
J 


BY  HARRIET  MARTINEAU. 


BOSTON: 

WEEKS,  JORDAN  &  CO.— OTIS,  BROADERS  &  CO. 
NEW  YORK  :-JOHN  S.  TAYLOR. 

1839. 


[In  consequence  of  the  repeated  demands  for  the  No.  of  the  London 
and  Westminster  Review  containing  Miss  Martineau's  Martyr  Age  in 
the  United  States,  the  Publishers  have  been  induced  to  issue  the  article 
in  a  separate  form,  without  any  alteration.  ] 


THE    MARTYR    AGE. 


1.  Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston   in   1835.       Boston,   U.  S. : 

Isaac  Knapp. 

2.  Right  and    Wrong   in  Boston  in   1836.     Boston,  U.  S. : 

Isaac  Knapp. 

3.  Right   and   Wrong  in  Boston   in  1837.     Boston,  U.  S. : 

Isaac  Knapp. 

THERE  is  a  remarkable  set  of  people  now  living 
and  vigorously  acting  in  the  world,  with  a  consonance 
of  will  and  understanding  which  has  perhaps  never 
been  witnessed  among  so  large  a  number  of  individ- 
uals of  such  diversified  powers,  habits,  opinions, 
tastes  and  circumstances.  The  body  comprehends 
men  and  women  of  every  shade  of  color,  of  every  de- 
gree of  education,  of  every  variety  of  religious  opin- 
ion, of  every  gradation  of  rank,  bound  together  by  no 
vow,  no  pledge,  no  stipulation  but  of  each  preserving 
his  individual  liberty  ;  and  yet  they  act  as  if  they 
were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul.  Such  union 
could  be  secured  by  no  principle  of  worldly  interest  ; 
nor,  for  a  terms  of  years,  by  the  most  stringent  fana- 
ticism. A  well-grounded  faith,  directed  towards  a 
noble  object,  is  the  only  principle  which  can  account 
for  such  a  spectacle  as  the  world  is  now  waking  up  to 
contemplate  in  the  abolitionists  of  the  United  States. 

Before  we  fix  our  attention  on  the  history  of  the 
body,  it  may  be  remarked  that  it  is  a  totally  different 
thing  to  be  an  abolitionist  on  a  soil  actually  trodden 


4 

4  AMERICAN     ABOLITIONISTS. 

by  slaves,  and  in  a  far-off  country,  where  opinion  is 
already  on  the  side   of  emancipation,  or  ready  to  be 
converted  ;  where  only  a  fraction  of  society,  instead 
of  the  whole,  has  to  be  convicted  of  guilt  ;  and  where 
no  interests  are  put  in  jeopardy  but   pecuniary  ones, 
and   those   limited  and   remote.     Great  honor  is  due 
to  the  first   movers  in  the  anti-slavery  cause  in  every 
land  :  but  those  of  European  countries  may  take  rank 
with  the  philanthropists  of  America  who  may  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  aborigines  :   while  the  primary  aboli- 
tionists of  the  United  States   have  encountered,  with 
steady    purpose,  such  opposition  as  might  here  await 
assailants  of  the  whole  set  of  aristocratic   institutions 
at    once,  from    the  throne    to  pauper  apprenticeship. 
.Slavery  is  as   thoroughly   interwoven   with   American 
institutions — ramifies  as  extensively  through  American 
society,  as  the  aristocratic  spirit  pervades   Great  Bri- 
tain.     The  fate  of  Reformers  whose  lives  are  devoted 
to  making  war  upon  either  the  one  or  the  other  must 
be   remarkable.     We    are    about    to   exhibit    a    brief 
sketch  of  the  struggle  of  the   American   abolitionists 
from  the  dawn  of  their  day  to  the  present  hour,  avoid- 
ing to  dwell  on  the  institution  with  which  they  are  at 
war,  both  because  the  question  of  slavery  is  doubtless 
settled   in  the   minds    of  all  our  readers,  and  because 
our  contemplation  is    of  a  body    of  persons  who   are 
living  by  faith,  and  not  of  a  party   of  Reformers  con- 
tending against  a  particular  social  abuse.     Our  sketch 
must  be  faint,  partial^  and   imperfect.      The  short  life 
of  American  abolitionism  is  so  crowded  with  events 
and  achievements,   that  the  selection  of  a  few  is   all 
that  can  be  attempted.      Many  names   deserving  of 
honor  will  be   omitted  ;  and  many  will  receive   less 
than  their  due  :  and  in  the  case  of  persons  who  are  so 
devoted  to  others  as  to  have  no  thoughts  to  bestow  on 
themselves,  no  information  to   proffer  regarding  their 
own  lives,  it  is  scarcely  possible  for  their  describers 


COLONIZATION     SOCIETY.  O 

to  avoid  errors  about  their  history.  Though  an  extra- 
ordinary light  is  shed  from  their  deeds  upon  their  lives, 
it  scarcely  penetrates  far  enough  into  the  obscurity  of 
the  past  to  obviate  mistake  on  the  part  of  a  foreign 
observer. 

Ten  years  ago  there  was  external  quiet  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  Jefferson  and 
other  great  men  had  prophesied  national  peril  from  it  ; 
a  few  legislators  had  talked  of  doing  something  to  me- 
liorate the  "  condition  of  society"  in  their  respective 
States  ;  the  institution  had  been  abolished  in  some  of 
the  northern  States,  where  the  number  of  negroes  was 
small,  and  the  work  of  emancipation  easy  and  obvious- 
ly desirable  :  an  insurrection  broke  out  occasionally, 
in  one  place  or  another  ;  and  certain  sections  of  so- 
ciety were  in  a  state  of  perplexity  or  alarm  at  the  tal- 
ents, or  the  demeanor,  or  the  increase  of  numbers  of 
the  free  blacks.  But  no  such  thing  had  been  heard 
of  as  a  comprehensive  and  strenuously  active  objec- 
tion to  the  whole  system,  wherever  established.  The 
surface  of  society  was  heaving  ;  but  no  one  surge  had 
broken  into  voice,  prophetic  of  that  chorus  of  many 
waters  in  which  the  doom  of  the  institution  may  now 
be  heard.  Yet  clear  sighted  persons  saw  that  some 
great  change  must  take  place  ere  long  ;  for  a  scheme 
was  under  trial  for  removing  the  obnoxious  part  of  the 
negro  population  to  Africa.  Those  of  the  dusky  race 
who  were  too  clever,  and  those  who  were  too  stupid, 
to  be  safe  or  useful  at  home,  were  to  be  exported  ; 
and  slave-owners  who  had  scruples  about  holding  man 
as  property  might,  by  sending  their  slaves  away  over 
the  sea,  relieve  their  consciences  without  annoying 
their  neighbors.  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  pre- 
vious to  1829. 

The  Colonization  Society  originated  abolitionism. 
It  acted  in  two  ways.  It  exasperated  the  free  blacks 

by  the  prospect  of  exile,  and  it  engaged  the  attention 
!* 


COLONIZATION  SOCIETF, 

of  those  who  hated  slavery,  though  the  excitement  it 
afforded  to  their  hopes  was  illusory.  Its  action  in 
both  ways  became  manifest  in  the  year  1829.  In  the 
spring  of  this  year  the  stir  began  at  Cincinnati,  where 
a  strenuous  effort  was  made  to  induce  the  white  inhabi- 
tants to  drive  away  the  free  colored  people,  by  putting 
in  force  against  them  the  atrocious  state  laws,  which 
placed  them  in  a  condition  of  civil  disability,  and  pro- 
viding at  the  same  time  the  means  of  transportation  to 
Africa.  The  colored  people  held  a  meeting,  peti- 
tioned the  authorities  for  leave  to  remain  in  their  pre- 
sent condition  for  sixty  days,  and  despatched  a  com- 
mittee to  Canada,  to  see  whether  provision  could  be 
made  for  their  residence  there.  The  sixty  days  ex- 
pired before  the  committee  returned  :  the  populace  of 
Cincinnati  rose  upon  the  colored  people,  and  compel- 
led them  to  barricade  themselves  in  their  houses,  in 
assailing  which,  during  three  days  and  nights,  several 
lives  were  lost.  Sir  James  Colebrook,  Governor  of 
Upper  Canada,  charged  the  Committee  with  the  fol- 
lowing message  : — "  Tell  the  Republicans  on  your 
side  of  the  line  that  we  do  not  know  men  by  their 
color.  If  you  come  to  us,  you  will  be  entitled  to  all 
the  privileges  of  the  rest  of  his  Majesty's  subjects. " 
In  consequence  of  this  welcome  message,  the  greater 
part  of  the  proscribed  citizens  removed  to  Canada, 
and  formed  the  Wilberforce  settlement.  The  few 
who  remained  behind  were  oppressed  to  the  utmost 
degree  that  the  iniquitous  laws  against  them  could  be 
made  to  sanction.  This  was  not  a  transaction  which 
could  be  kept  a  secret.  Meetings  were  held  by  the 
free  blacks  of  all  the  principal  towns  north  of  the 
Carolinas,  and  resolutions  passed  expressive  of  their 
abhorrence  of  the  Colonization  Society.  The  reso- 
lutions passed  at  the  Philadelphia  meeting  are  a  fair 
sample  of  the  opinions  of  the  class  : 


WILLIAM    L.    GARRISON.  7 

"  Resolved, — That  we  view  with  deep  abhorrence  the  unmerited 
stigma  attempted  to  be  cast  upon  the  reputation  of  the  free  people 
of  color  by  the  promoters  of  this  measure,  'that  they  are  a  danger- 
ous and  useless  part  of  the  community,'  when,  in  the  state  of  dis- 
franchisement  in  which  they  live,  in  the  hour  of  danger  they 
ceased  to  remember  their  wrongs,  and  rallied  round  the  standard  of 
their  country. 

"  Resolved, — That  we  never  will  separate  ourselves  voluntarily 
from  the  slave  population  in  this  country  :  they  are  our  brethren  by 
the  ties  of  consanguinity,  of  suffering,  and  of  wrong  :  and  we  feel 
that  there  is  more  virtue  in  suffering  privations  with  them  than  in 
fancied  advantages  for  a  season." 

Such  was  one  mode  of  operation  of  the  Coloniza- 
tion Society.  The  other  was  upon  the  minds  of  in- 
dividuals of  the  privileged  color  who  had  the  spirit  of 
abolitionism  in  them,  without  having  yet  learned  how 
to  direct  it.  Of  these  the  chief,  the  heroic  printer's 
lad,  the  master-mind  of  this  great  revolution,  was  then 
lying  in  prison,  undergoing  his  baptism  into  the 
cause. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  is  one  of  God's  nobility — 
the  head  of  the  moral  aristocracy  whose  prerogatives 
we  are  contemplating.  It  is  not  only  that  he  is  invul- 
nerable to  injury — that  he  early  got  the  world  under 
his  feet  in  a  way  which  it  would  have  made  Zeno 
stroke  his  beard  in  complacency  to  witness,  but  that 
in  his  meekness,  his  sympathies,  his  self-forgetfulness, 
he  appears  u  covered  all  over  with  the  stars  and  or- 
ders "  of  the  spiritual  realm  whence  he  derives  his 
dignities  and  powers.  At  present  he  is  a  marked  man 
wherever  he  turns.  The  faces  of  his  friends  brighten 
when  his  step  is  heard  :  the  people  of  color  almost 
kneel  to  him  ;  and  the  rest  of  society  jeer,  pelt, 
and  execrate  him.  Amidst  all  this,  his  gladsome 
life  rolls  on,  "  too  busy  to  be  anxious,  and  too 
loving  to  be  sad."  He  springs  from  his  bed  singing 
at  sunrise  ;  and  if,  during  the  day,  tears  should  cloud 
his  serenity,  they  are  never  shed  for  himself.  His 
countenance  of  steady  compassion  gives  hope  to  the 


8  WILLIAM    L,   GARRISON. 

oppressed,  who  look  to  him  as  the  Jews  looked  to 
Moses.  It  was  this  serene  countenance,  saint-like  in 
its  earnestness  and  purity,  that  a  man  bought  at  a 
print-shop,  where  it  was  exposed  without  a  name,  and 
hung  up  as  the  most  apostolic  face  he  ever  saw.  It 
does  not  alter  the  case  that  the  man  took  it  out  of  the 
frame  and  hid  it  when  he  found  that  it  was  Garrison 
who  had  been  adorning  his  parlour.  As  for  his  own 
persecutors,  Garrison  sees  in  them  the  creatures  of 
of  unfavorable  circumstances.  He  early  satisfied 
himself  that  a  "rotten  egg  cannot  hit  truth  ;" 
and  then  the  whole  matter  was  settled.  Such  is  his 
case  now.  In  1829  it  was  very  different.  He  was  an 
obscure  lad,  gaining  some  superficial  improvement  in 
a  country  college,  when  tidings  of  the  Colonization 
scheme  reached  him,  and  filled  him  with  hope  for  the 
colored  race.  He  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the 
cause,  and  went  down  to  Baltimore  to  learn  such  facts 
as  would  enable  him  to  lecture  on  the  subject.  The 
fallacies  of  the  plan  melted  before  his  gaze,  while  the 
true  principle  became  so  apparent  as  to  decide  his 
mission.  While  this  process  was  going  on,  he  got 
into  his  first  trouble.  A  Mr  Todd,  a  New  England 
merchant,  freighted  a  vessel  with  slaves  for  the  New 
Orleans  market,  in  the  interval  of  his  annual  thanks- 
givings to  God  that  the  soil  of  his  State  was  untrod- 
den by  the  foot  of  a  slave.  Garrison  said  what  he 
thought  of  the  transaction  in  a  newspaper  ;  was  tried 
for  libel,  and  committed  to  prison  till  he  could  pay  the 
imposed  fine  of  a  thousand  dollars — a  sum  which' 
might  as  well  have  been  a  million  for  any  ability  he 
had  to  pay  it.  Some  record  of  what  was  his  state  of 
mind  at  this  time  was  left  on  his  prison  wall : — 


WILLIAM    L.    GARRISON.  V 

"  I  boast  no  courage  on  the  battle-field, 

Where  hostile  troops  immix  in  horrid  fray  ; 
For  love  or  fame  I  can  no  weapon  wield, 

With  burning  lust  an  enemy  to  slay. 
But  test  my  spirit  at  the  blazing  stake, 

For  advocacy  of  the  Rights  of  Man 
And  Truth — or  on  the  wheel  my  body  break  ; 

Let  Persecution  place  me  'neath  its  ban  ; 
Insult,  defame,  proscribe  my  humble  name  ; 

Yea,  put  the  dagger  at  my  naked  breast ; 
If  I  recoil  in  terror  from  the  flame — 

Or  recreant  prove  when  peril  rears  its  crest, 
To  save  a  limb  or  shun  the  public  scorn — 
Then  write  me  down  for  aye — weakest  of  woman  torn." 

W.  L    G. 

The  imprisonment  of  an  honest  man  for  such  a 
cause  was  an  occasion  for  the  outbreak  of  discontent 
with  slavery  on  all  hands.  u  I  was  in  danger,"  says 
Garrison,  "  of  being  lifted  up  beyond  measure,  even 
in  prison,  by  excessive  panegyric  and  extraordinary 
sympathy."  He  was  freed  by  the  generosity  of  an 
entire  stranger,  Mr  Arthur  Tappan,  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant of  New  York,  whose  entire  conduct  on  the 
question  has  been  in  accordance  with  the  act  of  pay- 
ing Garrison's  fine. 

Garrison's  lectures  were  now  upon  abolition,  not 
colonization.  He  was  listened  to  with  much  interest 
in  New  York  ;  but  at  Boston  he  could  obtain  no  place 
to  lecture  in  ;  and  it  was  not  till  it  was  clear  that  he 
intended  to  collect  an  audience  on  the  Common,  in 
the  midst  of  the  city,  that  a  door  was  opened  to  him. 
He  obtained  a  few  coadjutors, — for  one,  a  simple- 
minded  clergyman,  Mr  May,  who  on  the  next  Sunday 
prayed  for  slaves,  among  other  distressed  persons,  and 
was  asked,  on  coming  down  from  the  pulpit,  whether 
he  was  mad  ?  Another  of  these  coadjutors,  William 
Goodell,  said,  in  1836,  "  My  mind  runs  back  to 
nearly  seven  years  ago,  when  I  used  to  walk  with 
Garrison  across  yonder  Common,  and  to  converse 
on  the  great  enterprise  for  which  we  are  now  met. 


10  WILLIAM    L.     GARRISON. 

The  work  then  was  all  future.  It  existed  only  in  the 
ardent  prayer  and  the  fixed  resolves."  It  was  wrought 
out  by  prompt  and  strenuous  action.  Garrison  and 
his  friend  Knapp,  a  printer,  were  ere  ere  long  living 
in  a  garret  on  bread  and  water,  expending  all  their 
spare  earnings  and  time  on  the  publication  of  the 
"  Liberator,"  now  a  handsome  and  flourishing  news- 
paper ;  then  a  small,  shabby  sheet,  printed  with  old 
types.  "  When  it  sold  particularly  well,"  says 
Knapp,  "  we  treated  ourselves  with  a  bowl  of  milk." 
The  venerable  first  number,  dated  January  1st,  1831, 
lies  before  us  in  its  primitive  shabbiness  ;  and  on  its 
first  page,  in  Garrison's  "  Address  to  the  Public,"  we 
see  proof  that  the  vehemence  of  language,  which  has 
often  been  ascribed  to  personal  resentment  (but  by 
none  who  knew  him),  has  been  from  the  beginning  a 
matter  of  conscience  with  him.  "I  am  aware,"  he 
says,  "  that  many  object  to  the  severity  of  my  lan- 
guage, but  is  there  not  cause  for  severity  !  I  will  be 
as  harsh  as  truth,  and  as  uncompromising  as  justice. 
I  am  in  earnest — I  will  not  equivocate — I  will  not 
excuse — I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch — AND  I  WILL 
BE  HEARD.  The  apathy  of  the  people  is  enough  to 
make  every  statue  leap  from  its  pedestal,  and  to  hasten 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is  pretended  that  I 
am  retarding  the  cause  of  emancipation  by  the  coarse- 
ness of  my  invective,  and  the  precipitancy  of  rny 
measures.  The  charge  is  not  true.  On  this  question 
my  influence,  humble  as  it  is,  is  felt  at  this  moment  to 
a  considerable  extent,  and  shall  be  felt  in  coming  years 
— not  perniciously,  but  beneficially  ;  not  as  a  curse, 
but  as  a  blessing  ;  and  posterity  will  bear  testimony 
that  I  was  right.  I  desire  to  thank  God  that  he  ena- 
bles me  to  disregard  the  fear  of  man,  and  to  speak  his 
truth  in  its  simplicity  and  power." 

The   time    was  ripe   for  Garrison's  exertions.     A 
pamphlet  appeared  in  the  autumn  of  1829,  at  Boston, 


WILLIAM    L.    GARRISON.  11 

from  the  pen  of  a  man  of  color,  named  Walker,  which 
alarmed  society  not  a  little.  It  was  an  appeal  to  his 
colored  brethren,  to  drown  their  injuries  in  the  blood 
of  their  oppressors.  Its  language  is  perfectly  appal- 
ling. It  ran  through  several  editions,  though  no  book- 
seller would  publish  it.  Not  long  after,  the  author 
was  found  murdered  near  his  own  door  ;  but  whether 
he  had  been  assassinated  for  his  book,  or  had  been 
fatally  wounded  in  a  fray,  is  not  known.  If  the  slave- 
owners could  but  have  seen  it,  Garrison  was  this 
man's  antagonist,  not  his  coadjutor.  Garrison  is  as 
strenuous  a  "peace-man"  as  any  broad-brimmed 
Friend  in  Philadelphia  ;  and  this  fact,  in  conjunction 
with  his  unlimited  influence  over  the  Negro  popula- 
tion, is  the  chief  reason  why  no  blood  has  been  shed, 
— why  no  insurrectionary  movement  has  taken  place 
in  the  United  States,  from  the  time  when  his  voice 
began  to  be  heard  over  the  broad  land  till  now.  Ev- 
ery evil,  however,  which  happened,  every  shiver  of 
the  master,  every  growl  of  the  slave  was  henceforth  to 
!/e  char;,-  d  upon  Garrison.  Some  of  the  Southern 
States  oifered  rewards  for  the  apprehension  of  any 
person  who  might  be  detected  in  circulating  the  "  Li- 
berator," or  "  Walker's  Appeal  ;"  and  one  Legisla- 
ture demanded  of  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  that 
Garrison  should  be  delivered  up  to  them.  The  fate 
of  Walker  was  before  his  eyes  ;  and  it  came  to  his 
ears,  that  gentlemen  in  stage  coaches  said  that  it  was 
everywhere  thought  that  "  he  would  not  be  permitted 
to  live  long  ;"  that  he  "would  be  taken  away,  and  no 
one  be  the  wiser  for  it."  His  answer,  on  this  and  many 
subsequent  occasions,  was  the  same  in  spirit.  "  Will 
you  aim  at  no  higher  victims  than  Arthur  Tappan, 
Geo.  Thompson,  and  W.  L.  Garrison  ?  And  who 
and  what  are  they  ?  Three  drops  from  a  boundless 
ocean — three  rays  from  a  noon  day  sun — three  parti- 
cles of  dust  floating  in  a  limitless  atmosphere — nothing, 


12  WILLIAM    L.    GARRISON. 

subtracted  from  infinite  fulness.  Should  you  succeed 
in  destroying  them,  the  mighty  difficulty  still  remains." 
As-  a  noble  woman  has  since  said,  in  defence  of  the 
individuality  of  action  of  the  leaders  of  the  cause,  "  It 
is  idle  to  talk  of  '  leaders.'  In  the  contest  of  morals 
with  abuses,  men  are  but  types  of  principles.  Does 
any  one  seriously  believe  that  if  Mr  Garrison  should 
take  an  appealing,  protesting,  backward  step,  aboli- 
tionists would  fall  back  with  him  ?"  The  "  mighty 
difficulty"  would  still  remain, — and  remain  as  surely 
doomed  as  ever,  were  Garrison  to  turn  recreant  or 
die. 

One  more  dreadful  event  was  to  happen  before  the 
tk  peace-man"  could  make  his  reprobation  of  violence 
heard  over  the  Union.  The  insurrection  of  slaves  in 
Southampton  county,  Virginia,  in  which  eighty  persons 
were  slain — parents  with  their  five,  seven  or  ten  child- 
ren, being  massacred  in  the  night — happened  in  1832. 
The  affair  is  wrapped  in  mystery,  as  are  most  slave  in- 
surrections, both  from  policy  on  tlic  pun  of  ihr.  mas- 
ters, and  from  the  whites  being  too  impatient  to  wait 
the  regular  course  of  justice,  and  sacrificing  their  foes 
as  they  could  catch  them.  In  the  present  case  many 
Negroes  were  slaughtered,  with  every  refinement  of 
cruelty,  on  the  roads,  or  in  their  masters'  yards,  with- 
out appeal  to  judge,  jury,  or  evidence.  This  kind  of 
management  precludes  any  clear  knowledge  of  the 
causes  of  the  insurrection  ;  but  it  is  now  supposed 
near  the  spot  to  have  been  occasioned  by  the  fanati- 
cism of  a  madman,  a  Negro,  who  assured  the  blacks 
who  came  to  him  for  religious  sympathy  that  they  were 
to  run  the  course  of  the  ancient  Jews — slaying  and 
sparing  not.  We  mention  this  rising  because  it  is  the 
last  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  color.  Free  or  enslav- 
ed, they  have  since  been  peaceable  ;  while  all  the  suc- 
ceeding violences  have  been  perpetrated  by  "gentlemen 
of  property  and  standing."  It  was  natural  that  those 


PRUDENCE    CRANDALL.  13 

who  had  suffered  by  this  slaughter  or  its  consequences, 
those  who  mourned  large  families  of  relations  thus  cut 
off,  those  who  for  the  sake  of  their  crops  feared  the 
amendment  of  the  system  as  a  result  of  this  exhibition 
of  its  tendencies,  those  who  for  the  sake  of  their 
children  nightly  trembled  in  their  beds,  should  cast 
about  for  an  object  on  whom  to  vent  their  painful  feel- 
ings ;  and  Garrison  was  that  object.  The  imputation 
of  the  insurrection  to  him  was  too  absurd  to  be  long 
sustained  ;  but  those  who  could  not  urge  this  against 
him  still  remonstrated  against  his  "  disturbing  the  har- 
mony and  peace  of  society."  "  Disturbing  the  slave- 
holders !"  replied  he.  <c  I  am  sorry  to  disturb  any- 
body. But  the  slave-holders  have  so  many  friends  ; 
I  must  be  the  friend  of  the  slaves." 

On  the  22d  of  March,  1833,  there  appeared  in  the 
"  Liberator"  the  following  advertisement: — 

PRUDENCE  CRANDALL. 

"  Principal  of  the  Canterbury  (Connecticut)  Female 
Boarding  School,  returns  her  most  sincere  thanks  to  those 
who  have  patronized  her  School,  and  would  give  informa- 
tion that,  on  the  first  Monday  of  April  next,  her  School  will 
be  opened  for  the  reception  of  young  Ladies  and  little  Misses 
of  color.  The  branches  taught  are  as  follows  ; — Reading, 
Writing,  Arithmetic,  English  Grammar,  &c." 

The  advertisement  closed  with  a  long  list  of  referen- 
ces to  gentlemen  of  the  highest  character. 

The  reason  of  this  announcement  was,  that  Miss 
Crandall,  a  young  lady  of  established  reputation  in 
her  profession,  had  been  urgently  requested  to  under- 
take the  tuition  of  a  child  of  light  color,  had  admitted 
her  among  the  white  pupils,  had  subsequently  admitted 
a  second,  thereby  offending  the  parents  of  her  former 
pupils  ;  ^nd,  on  being  threatened  on  the  one  hand  with 
the  loss  of  all  her  scholars,  and  urged  on  the  other  to 
take  more  of  a  dark  complexion,  Tiad  nobly  resolved 
2 


14  PRUDENCE    CRANDALL. 

to  continue  to  take  young  ladies  of  color,  letting  the 
whites  depart,  if  they  so  pleased.  We  relate  the  con- 
sequences, because  this  is,  as  far  as  we  know,  the  first 
instance  in  the  struggle  of  a  protracted  persecution  of 
a  peaceable  individual  by  the  whole  of  the  society  of 
the  district. 

A  town-meeting  was  called  on  the  appearance  of 
the  advertisement,  and  the  school  was  denounced  in 
violent  terms.  Miss  Crandall  silently  prosecuted  her 
plan.  The  legislature  was  petitioned,  through  the  ex- 
ertion of  a  leading  citizen  of  Canterbury,  Mr  Judson, 
and  a  law  was  obtained  in  the  course  of  the  month  of 
May,  making  it  a  penal  offence  to  establish  any  school 
for  the  instruction  of  colored  persons,  not  inhabitants 
of  the  State,  or  to  instruct,  board,  or  harbor  persons 
entering  the  State  for  educational  purposes.  This  law 
was  clearly  unconstitutional,  as  it  violated  that  clause 
in  the  constitution  which  gives  to  the  citizens  of  each 
State  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  citizens 
of  the  several  States.*  Perceiving  this,  Miss  Cran- 
dall took  no  notice,  but  went  on  with  her  school.  She 
was  accordingly  arrested,  and  carried  before  a  justice 
of  the  peace  ;  and  the  next  spectacle  that  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Canterbury  saw  was  Miss  Crandall  going  to 
jail.  She  was  bailed  out  the  next  day,  and  her  trial 
issued  in  nothing,  as  the  jury  could  not  agree.  She 
was  again  prosecuted,  and  again  ;  and  at  length  con- 
victed. She  appealed  to  a  higher  Court,  and  struggled 
on  throught  a  long  persecution  till  compelled  to  yield 
from  the  lives  of  her  pupils  being  in  danger.  Her 
neighbors  pulled  down  her  fences,  and  filled  up  her 
well.  All  the  traders  in  the  place  refused  to  deal  with 
her,  and  she  was  obliged  to  purchase  provisions  and 
clothing  from  a  great  distance.  She  and  her  pupils 

*Laws  which  are  infringements  of  the  constitution  are  not  binding 
upon  the  Court  of  Judicature  iu  the  last  resort,  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States. 


MR    AND     MRS    CHILD.  15 

were  refused  admission  to  the  churches  ;  her  windows 
were  repeatedly  broken  during  the  night ;  and  at  length 
the  attacks  upon  her  house  became  so  alarming,  and 
the  menaces  to  her  pupils  on  their  way  to  school  so 
violent,  that  their  parents  were  compelled  to  hide  the 
children  in  their  own  houses,  and  Mis  Crandall  retired 
from  the  place.  Her  conduct  was  to  the  last  degree 
meek  and  quiet  ;  nothing  need  be  said  about  its  cour- 
age. 

By  this  time  the  abolition  cause  was  supported  by 
twentysix  periodicals,  circulating  from  Maine  to  Vir- 
ginia and  Indiana.  Some  excellent  individuals  had 
done  the  brave  deed  of  publishing  books  in  aid  of  the 
same  cause.  Among  these  was  Mrs  Child,  a  lady  of 
whom  society  was  exceedingly  proud  before  she  pub- 
lished her  £  Appeal,'  and  to  whom  society  has  been 
extremely  contemptuous  since.  Her  works  were 
bought  with  avidity  before,  but  fell  into  sudden  obliv- 
ion as  soon  as  she  had  done  a  greater  deed  than  writing 
any  os-  :  !1  of  them.  Her  noble-minded  husband  lost 
his  legcii  practice,  sound  and  respected  as  were  his  tal- 
ents, from  affording  his  counsel  to  citizens  of  color  ; 
and  he  was  maliciously  arrested  on  the  quays  of  New- 
York,  for  a  fictitious  or  extremely  trifling  old  debt, 
when  he  was  just  putting  his  foot  on  board  a  vessel  for 
England.  The  incident  affected  him  deeply  ;  and  his 
brave  wife  was,  for  once,  seen  to  sit  down  and  weep  : 
but  she  shook  off  her  trouble,  packed  up  a  bundle  of 
clothes  for  him,  and  went  to  cheer  him  in  his  prison, 
whence,  it  is  needless  to  say,  he  was  presently  released, 
crowned  in  the  eyes  of  his  friends  with  fresh  honors. 
A  circumstance  which  we  happen  to  know  respecting 
this  gentleman  and  lady  illustrates  well  the  states  of 
feeling  on  the  great  question  in  the  different  classes  of 
minds  at  the  time.  Mr  Child  was  professionally  con- 
sulted by  a  gentleman  of  color.  The  client  and  his 
lady  visited  Mr  Child  at  his  residence  at  Boston,  one 


16  MR   AND    MRS    CHILD. 

afternoon,  and  staid  beyond  the  family  tea-hour.  Mrs 
Child  at  length  ordered  up  tea  ;  but  before  it  could  be 
poured  out,  the  visitors  took  their  leave,  not  choosing 
to  subject  Mr  and  Mrs  Child  to  the  imputation  of  sit- 
ting at  table  with  people  of  color.  Boston  soon  rang 
with  the  report  that  Mr  and  Mrs  Child  had  given  an 
entertainment  to  colored  people.  Some  aristocratic 
ladies,  seated  in  one  of  the  handsomest  drawing-rooms 
in  Boston,  were  one  day  canvassing  this  and  other  ab- 
olition affairs,  while  Dr  Channing  appeared  absorbed 
in  a  newspaper  by  the  fireside.  The  ladies  repeated 
tale  after  tale,  each  about  as  true  as  the  one  they  be- 
gan with,  and  greeted  with  loud  laughter  every  attempt 
of  one  of  the  party  to  correct  their  mistakes  about 
the  ladies  who  were  then  under  persecution,  and  in 
peril  for  the  cause.  At  length,  Dr  Channing  turned 
his  head,  and  produced  a  dead  silence  by  observing, 
in  the  sternest  tones  of  his  thrilling  voice,  "The  time 
will  come  when  those  ladies  will  find  their  proper 
places  :  and  the  time  will  come  when  the  laughers  will 
find  their  proper  'place."  This  happened,  however, 
not  in  1833,  but  when  the  persecution  of  the  women 
had  risen  to  iis  height. 

By  this  time  the  degraded  free  blacks  began  to  hold 
up  their  heads  ;  and  they  entered  upon  a  new  course 
of  action, — setting  out  upon  a  principle  of  hope  in- 
stead of  despair.  As  they  found  the  doors  of  schools 
shut  against  them,  they  formed  associations  for  mutual 
improvement.  The  best  minds  among  them  sent  forth 
urgent  entreaties  to  the  rest  to  labor  at  the  work  of 
education,  pleading  that  the  nearer  the  prospect  of  an 
improved  social  condition,  the  more  pressing  became 
the  necessity  of  strengthening  and  enriching  their 
minds  for  their  new  responsibilities.  It  was  a  glad  day 
for  them  when  they  saw  the  assemblage  in  Convention 
at  Philadelphia  of  anti-slavery  delegates  from  ten 
States  out  of  the  twentyfour  of  which  the  Union  was 


DECLARATION.  17 

at  that  time  constituted.  These  ten  States  were  the 
six  which  compose  New  England,  and  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.  Some  State 
Associations  were  already  organized  :  the  National 
one  organized  by  this  Convention  bears  date  Decem- 
ber 1833.  There  might  be  seen  Garrison,  just  re- 
turned from  England,  refreshed  by  sympathy  and  ex- 
hilarated by  hope.  There  was  May,  the  mild  gentle- 
man, the  liberal  clergyman,  who  unconsciously  secures 
courtesy  from  the  most  contemptuous  of  the  foe, 
when  nothing  but  insult  was  designed.  There  was 
Lewis  Tappan,  the  grave  Presbyterian,  against  whom 
violence  was  even  then  brewing,  and  who  was  soon 
to  be  despoiled  of  his  property  by  the  firebrands  of  a 
rnob.  These,  and  many  others,  put  their  signatures 
to  a  Declaration,  of  which  we  subjoin  the  concluding 
passage  : — 

"  Submitting  this  DECLARATION  to  the  candid  considera- 
tion of  the  people  of  this  country  ;  and  of  the  friends  of  lib- 
erty throughout  the  world,  we  hereby  affix  our  signatures  to 
it  ;  pledging  ourselves  that,  under  the  guidance  and  by  the 
help  of  Almighty  God,  we  will  do  all  that  in  us  lies,  con- 
sistently with  this  Declaration  of  our  principles,  to  over- 
throw the  most  execrable  system  of  slavery  that  iias  ever 
been  witnessed  upon  earth — to  deliver  our  land  from  its 
deadliest  curse — to  wipe  out  the  foulest  stain  which  rests 
upon  our  national  escutcheon — and  to  secure  to  the  colored 
population  of  the  United  States  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
which  belong  to  them  as  men,  and  as  Americans, — come 
what  may  to  our  persons,  our  interests,  or  our  reputation — 
whether  we  live  to  witness  the  triumph  of  Liberty,  Justice, 
and  Humanity,  or  perish  untimely  as  martyrs  in  this  great, 
benevolent,  and  holy  cause." 

This  was  the  first  General  Convention  of  Men 
held  for  this  object.  Of  another  First  Convention 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter. 

The  next  year  (1834)  was  a  stirring  year.  The 
u  Young  Men  "  of  the  large  cities  began  to  associate 
themselves  for  the  cause.  Those  of  New  York 
2* 


18  YOUNG    MEN. 

pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor,  (in  the  language  and  spirit  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,)  to  overthrow  slavery  by  moral  as- 
sault, or  to  die  in  the  attempt.  The  most  remarkable 
accession  of  young  men  to  the  cause  was  from  Lane 
Seminary,  Cincinnati, — a  presbyterian  college  of  high 
reputation,  with  the  eminent  Dr  Beecher  to  preside 
over  it.  The  students,  most  of  whom  were  above 
one-and-twenty,  and  fifty  of  whom  were  above  five-and 
twenty  years  of  age,  discussed  the  abolition  and  colo- 
nization questions  for  eighteen  evenings,  and  decided 
unanimously  in  favor  of  the  former.  The  alarmed 
Faculty  forbade  discussion  and  association  on  the  ques- 
tion, and  conferred  an  irresponsible  power  of  expul- 
sion on  the  Executive  Committee.  The  students  re- 
fused to  be  tongue-tied,  and  preferred  expulsion. 
Those  who  were  not  formally  expelled,  withdrew  ; 
so  that  of  forty  theological  students,  only  two  returned 
the  next  term  ;  and  of  classical  students,  only  five  out 
of  sixty.  It  is  strange  that  the  Faculty  did  not  fore- 
see the  consequences.  Almost  every  one  of  these 
dispersed  young  men  became  the  nucleus  of  an  aboli- 
tion society.  Some  distributed  themselves  among 
other  colleges  :  and  some  set  about  establishing  a  sem- 
inary where  freedom  of  thought  and  speech  might  be 
secured,  and  whose  doors  should  be  open  to  students 
of  all  complexions.  Ere  long,  President  Beecher's 
two  sons  were  active  abolitionists  ;  several  colleges 
had  invited  students  of  color  to  enter  ;  and  five  estab- 
lishments belonging  to  the  noble  Oberlin  Institute  were 
overflowing  with  students  of  both  sexes,  and  any  color 
that  might  please  Heaven.  Out  of  the  forlornness  of 
Lane  Seminary  arose  the  prosperity  of  the  Oberlin 
Institute. 

While  these  things  were  doing  in  the  West,  a  strange 
thing  was  happening  in  the  South.  In  the  midst  of 
the  hot  fields  of  Alabama,  where  the  negro  drinks  the 


MR   BIRNEIT.  ID 

last  dregs  of  his  cup  of  bitterness,  and  sees  his  family 
"killed   off,"    before  his  eyes,    in  securing  for  one 
whom  he  hates,  the  full  abundance  of  a  virgin  soil  ; — 
from  among  the  raw  settlements  where  white  men  car- 
ry secret  arms,  and  black  men  secret  curses,  a  great 
man  rose  up  before  the  public  eye,  and  declared  him- 
self an  abolitionist.     Mr  Birney  was  a  great  man  in  a 
worldly  as  well  as  a  moral  sense, — not  only  "  a  gen- 
tleman of  property  and  standing,"  but  Solicitor-Gen- 
eral of  the  State,   and  in  the   way  to  be   Judge  of  its 
Supreme   Court.     But  he   was  also   an    honest  and  a 
moderate  man.     It  was  he  who,  being  asked  about  in- 
vestment for  capital  in  the  West,  smiled,  and  said,  ct  I 
am  the  worst  person  you  could  ask.     My  family  and 
I  are  happy  with  what  we  have  :  we  do  not  know  that 
we  should  be  happier   with  more  ;  and   therefore   we 
inquire    nothing    about  investments."     None   can  be 
fully  aware  of  the  singularity  of  this  answer  who  have 
not  witnessed  the  prevalence  and  force  of  the  spirit  of 
speculation  in  the   Western  States. — Mr   Birney  re- 
moved from  Alabama,  emancipated  and  settled  all  his 
slaves,  giving  them  education  in  defiance  of  the  laws 
01  Kentucky,  and  himself  setting  up  a  newspaper  in 
Cincinnati,  standing  his  ground  there  against  many  and 
awful  attempts  upon  his  life,  and  at  length   gaining  a 
complete  victory,  and  establishing  freedom  of  speech 
and  the  press.     This   is  the   gentleman  to  whom  Mr 
Channing  wrote  his  splendid  letter  (on  liberty  of  speech 
and  the  press  :)  and  to  that  letter  Mr  Birney  acknowl- 
edges himself  under  great  obligations — Dr  Channing's 
name  effecting  in  some  minds  changes  which  angelic 
truth  could  not  achieve.     Mr  Birney  is   he  to   whom 
Southern  Menabers  of  Congress  now  address   them- 
selves— now  that  they  are  compelled  to  stoop  to  ad- 
dress abolitionists  at  all  : — he  is  addressed  as  the  gen- 
tleman of  the  party — a  distinction  at  which  he  would 
be  the  first  to  smile.     The  whole  South  felt  the  shock 


20  MR    BIRNEY. 

of  such  a  man  coming  forth  against  its  "  peculiar  do- 
mestic institutions  :"  and  all  the  more  from  Mr  Bir- 
ney's  having  been  an  active  colonizationist — a  bounti- 
ful and  influential  friend  to  that  society — even  a  collec- 
tor of  funds  for  it — till  experience  convinced  him, 
first  of  its  inefficiency,  and  then  of  its  wickedness. 
There  was  much  sensation  about  Mr  Birney  in  many 
a  house.  His  name  was  carefully  avoided  before 
strangers,  as  it  was  well  that  they  should  not  hear  the 
story  ("  strangers  could  not  understand  it  :  ")  but  here 
were  men  gnashing  tb  ^eth  at  him  for  "  loosening 
the  bonds  of  society  .  re  women  horror-struck 

lest  he  should  introduce  u  insubordination  "  (meaning 
midnight  massacre  ;)  and  children1*  agreeing  that  he 
could  be  no  gentleman  to  think  of  putting  notions  into 
the  heads  of  "people,"  and  turning  them  adrift  to 
take  care  of  themselves.  Silence  brooded  over  the 
cotton-fields  where  slaves  were  within  earshot  ;  but 
within  the  dwellings,  multitudes  of  whites  were  whis- 
pering about  Mr  Birney. 

The  cities  of  the  North  were  at  the  same  time  in 
commotion.  From  disturbing  meetings  and  inflicting 
petty  social  wounds,  the  enemies  of  the  colored  race 
proceeded  to  gross  outrage.  The  fear  for  the  purses 

*  While  children  in  the  South  were  naturally  adopting  and  exaggera- 
ting their  parents'  views  on  the  great  question,  calling  Mr  Adams  a 
"  horrid  creature  "  for  vindicating  the  right  of  petition,  and  Mr  Van 
Bureu  a  "  dear  soul  "  for  giving  his  casting  vote  in  favor  of  the  third 
reading  of  the  Gag  Bill,  there  was  sympathy  in  the  North  between  chil- 
dren and  their  parents  who  took  the  opposite  side  of  the  question. 
One  little  girl  of  seven  years  old,  an  only  child,  happened  to  hear  some- 
body say  to  her  father,  that  those  who  consumed  slave  products,  during 
the  present  crisis,  were  partly  answerable  for  the  sufferings  of  the  ne- 
groes. This  sank  into  her  mind.  Some  time  after,  her  mother  saw  the 
tears  stealing  down  her  face.  On  being  spoken  to,  she  threw  her  arms 
round  her  mother's  neck,  and  whispered,  that  she  meajit  never  again  to 
eat  cake,  or  sweetmeats,  or  sugar  in  any  form.  She  was  left  entirely 
to  her  own  feelings  on  the  matter,  her  parents  only  taking  care  to  pro- 
vide her  with  what  they  can  get  of  free-labor  sugar.  Under  every  con- 
ceivable circumstance  of  temptation,  away  from  home,  and  among  her 
little  companions,  this  young  creature  has  remained  faithful  to  her  spon- 
taneous resolution. 


REIGN  OF  TERROR.  21 

of  the  merchants  and  ship-owners  of  the  North  was 
becoming  exasperated  into  panic.  The  panic  was 
generously  shared  by  those  who  had  no  ships,  and  con- 
ducted no  commerce.  The  lawyers  and  clergy, 
u  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing"  of  every  sort, 
and  the  press,  gave  their  sympathy  to  the  merchants, 
and  the  result  was  presently  visible  in  the  reflection  of 
flames  upon  the  midnight  sky.  The  American  reign 
of  terror  now  began.  In  Philadelphia  fortyfour 
houses  and  two  churches  were  besieged  :  some  few 
greatly  damaged,  and  the  rest  sacked  and  destroyed. 
The  fortyfour  houses  belonged  to  the^people  of  col- 
or. In  New  York  the  mob  hunted  higher  game.  On 
the  fourth  of  July,  (the  anniversary  of  the  day  when 
liberty  was  guaranteed  to  all  American  citizens  by  the 
declaration  of  Independence,)  the  house  of  Mr  Lewis 
Tappan  was  sacked,  and  the  furniture  burned  in  the 
street.  A  certain  bureau,  in  which  his  children  kept 
their  little  keepsakes  and  other  treasures,  was  thrown 
upon  the  heap,  and  was  soon  crackling  in  the  flames  ; 
an  early  taste  of  persecution  for  the  young  creatures, 
and  a  circumstance  exceedingly  well  adapted  to  per- 
petuate their  father's  spirit  in  them.  The  house  of 
Dr  Cox  was  seriously  damaged,  and  the  African 
school-house  in  Orange  street,  with  twelve  adjacent 
houses,  chiefly  belonging  to  people  of  color,  was  de- 
stroyed. St.  Philip's  church  was  sacked,  and  several 
others  much  damaged.  The  abolitionists  not  only 
suffered  the  destruction  of  their  property  and  the  peril 
of  their  lives,  but  the  revilings  of  the  press  were  pour- 
ed out  upon  them.  They  were  upbraided  as  the 
cause  of  the  riots,  and  were  told  that,  though  they 
were  served  rightly  enough,  they  had  no  business  to 
scare  the  city  with  the  sight  of  their  burning  property 
and  demolished  churches. 

Next  followed  the  virtual  accession  of  a  great  north- 
ern man  to  the  cause  ;  for  though  Dr  Channing  con- 


22  DR    CHANNING. 

tinued  to  censure  the  abolitionists  for  two  years  after 
this,  it  was  in  the  autumn  of  1834  that  his  mind's  eye 
was  fixed  upon  the  question  on  which  he  has  since 
acted  a  brave  part.  It  was  at  the  close  of  this  sum- 
mer, in  the  parlor  of  his  Rhode  Island  retreat,  that 
the  memorable  conversation  with  Mr  Abdy  took  place 
by  which  Dr  Cbanning's  attention  was  aroused  to  the 
wrongs  of  the  colored  race.  Scarcely  any  other  man 
of  his  heart  and  his  principles  could  have  remained  so 
long  unaware  of  the  actual  state  of  the  case  :  but  there 
are  circumstances  of  health,  habit,  and  environment 
which  account  for  the  fact  to  those  who  know  Dr 
Channing.  As  soon  as  Mr  Adby  had  quitted  him,  he 
applied  himself  to  learn  the  truth  of  the  case,  and  in 
the  month  of  October  preached  a  thorough-going  abo- 
lition sermon,  as  to  its  principles  at  least,  though  many 
months  elapsed  before  he  learned  fully  to  recognize  the 
merits  of  the  men  who  were  teaching  and  practising 
them  at  the  hazard  of  all  that  ordinary  men  most  value. 
But  the  ray  of  doubt  which  was  thus  carried  into  that 
country  retreat  has  now  brightened  into  the  sunshine 
of  perfect  conviction  ;  it  did  so  in  time  to  dispel  the 
dark  clouds  which  had  gathered  above  the  morals  of 
the  Texas  question.  It  is  owing  to  Dr  Channing, 
finally  and  chiefly  (though  in  the  first  instance  to  Mr 
Child,)  that  the  United  States  have  been  saved  the 
crime  and  the  shame  of  annexing  Texas  to  the  Union, 
for  the  purpose  of  the  protraction  of  slavery. 

At  the  close  of  this  busy  year  it  was  found  that  the 
Auxiliary  anti- Slavery  Societies  had  increased  from 
sixty  to  about  two  hundred.  The  great  Executive 
Committee  proposed  to  their  constituents  to  "  thank 
God  and  take  courage." 

The  case  of  the  abolitionists  will  not,  however,  be 
truly  regarded,  if  they  are  contemplated  as  herding  to- 
gether, supporting  each  other  by  sympathy  and  mutual 
aid.  They  met,  in  smaller  or  larger  numbers,  from 


AMOS    DRESSER.  *          23 

time  to  time  ;  they  met  for  refreshment  and  for  mutual 
strength  :  but  it  was  in  the  intervals  of  these  meetings, 
the  weary,  lonely  intervals,  that  their  trials  befellhem. 
It  was  when  the  husband  was  abroad  about  his  daily 
business  that  he  met  with  his  crosses:  his  brother  mer- 
chants deprived  him  of  his  trade  ;  his  servants  insulted 
him  ;  the  magistrates  refused  him  redress  of  grievan- 
ces ;  among  his  letters  he  found  one  enclosing  the  ear 
of  a  negro  ;  or  a  printed  hand-bill  offering  large  re- 
wards for  his  own  ears  or  his  head  ;  or  a  lithographed 
representation  of  himself  hanging  from  a  gallows,  or 
burning  in  a  tar-barrel.  It  was  when  the  wife  was  ply- 
ing her  needle  by  the  fireside  that  messages  were 
brought  in  from  her  tradesmen  that  they  could  supply 
her  no  longer,  or  that  letters  dropped  in  with  such  con- 
tents as  the  following  : — 

"MADAM, — I  write  to  inform  you   that  personal  violence 
is  intended  on  you  and  your  husband  this  evening. 
"  Yours  in  haste, 

"  AN  ABOLITIONIST. 
"  Beware  of  nine  o'clock." 

It  was  in  the  course  of  ordinary  life  that  their  child- 
ren came  crying  from  school,  tormented  by  their 
school-fellows  for  their  parents'  principles  ;  that  youths 
had  the  doors  of  colleges  slammed  in  their  faces,  and 
that  young  men  were  turned  back  from  the  pulpit  and 
the  bar.  This  was  a  course  of  life  which  required  a 
better  support  than  the  temporary  enthusiasm  of  an 
occasional  meeting,  be  the  emotions  of  the  hour  as 
lofty  and  holy  as  they  might.  Such  a  support  these 
men  and  women  had  ;  and  never  was  it  more  wanted 
than  at  this  crisis  in  their  history. 

In  the  month  of  July,  L835,  one  of  the  dismissed 
students  of  the  Lane  Seminary,  Amos  Dresser  by 
name,  travelled  southward  from  Cincinnati,  for  the 
purpose  of  selling  bibles  and  a  few  other  books,  as  a 
means  of  raising  funds  for  the  completion  of  his  edu- 


24  »  AMOS    DRESSER. 

cation  ;  a  very  common  practice  in  the  west,  and  high- 
ly   useful  to   the   residents   of  new    settlements.     At 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  he  was  arrested  on  suspicion  of 
being  an  abolition  agent  ;  which  was  not  the  fact,   and 
in  support  of  which  there  was  positively  no   evidence 
whatever.     He  had  not  spoken  with  slaves,  or  distrib- 
uted  books  among  free   persons   of  color.     He  was 
brought  before  a  Committee   of  Vigilance,  consisting 
of  sixtytwo  of  the   principal  citizens,   among  whom 
were  seven  elders  of  the   Presbyterian  church.     His 
examination  lasted  from  between  four  and  five  in  the 
afternoon  till  eleven  at  night.     His  trunk  was  brought 
before  the  Committee  and  emptied.     In  it  were  found 
three   volumes,    written    by    abolitionists,    put    in   by 
Dresser  for  his  private  reading  ;  and  some   old  news- 
papers of  the  same  character,  used  as  stuffing  to  pre- 
vent the  books  from  rubbing.     His  private  journal  was 
examined  ;  but  as  it  was  in  pencil,  consisting   only  of 
memoranda,  and  those  put  in  abbreviation,  little  could 
be  made  out  of  it.     The  Mayor  gave  up  the  attempt 
to  read  it  aloud,  observing,  as  he  laid  it  down,  that  it 
was  u  evidently  very  hostile  to  slavery."     Private  let- 
ters from  friends  were  then  read  aloud,  and  wise  looks 
were  exchanged  among  the  judges  at  every  expression 
which  could  be  laid  hold  of  as  indicating   a  different 
way  of  thinking  from  theirs.     At  eleven  o'clock  the 
young  man  was  sent  into  an  adjoining  room  to  await  the 
judgment  of  the  Committee.     He  had  not  conceived 
the  idea  of  any  very  serious  issue  of  the  examination  ; 
and  it  was,  therefore,  with  horror  that  he   heard   from 
the  principal  city  officer  that  the  Committee  were  de- 
bating whether  his   punishment  should   be  thirtynine 
lashes,  or  a  hundred  (a  number  considered  fatal,  in  the 
way  in  which  abolitionists  are   flogged,)   or   death  by 
hanging.     The  Committee  acknowledged,  through  the 
whole  proceeding,  that  Dresser  had   broken   no  law  ; 
but  pleaded  that  if  the  law  did  not  sufficiently  protect 


AMOS    DRESSER.  25 

slavery  against  the  assaults  of  opinion,  an  association  of 
gentlemen  must  make  law  for  the  occasion.  Dresser 
was  found  guilty  of  three  things  :  of  being  a  member 
of  an  anti-Slavery  Society  in  another  State — of  hav- 
ing books  of  an  anti-Slavery  tendency  in  his  posses- 
sion, and  of  being  believed  to  have  circulated  such  in 
his  travels.  He  was  condemned  to  receive  twenty 
lashes  on  his  bare  back  in  the  market  place.  To  the 
market  place  he  was  marched,  amidst  the  acclamation 
of  the  mob  ;  and  there  by  torchlight,  and  just  as  the 
chimes  were  about  to  usher  in  the  Sunday,  he  was 
stripped  and  flogged  with  a  heavy  cow-hide.  At  the 
close,  an  involuntary  exclamation  of  thanksgiving  es- 
caped his  lips  that  it  was  over,  and  that  he  had  been 
able  to  bear  it.  u  God  d — n  him.  stop  his  praying  !" 
was  shouted  on  all  hands.  Twentyfour  hours  were 
allowed  him  to  leave  the  city ;  but  it  was  thought  un- 
safe for  him  to  remain  a  moment  longer  than  was  abso- 
lutely necessary,  or  to  return  to  his  lodgings.  Some 
kind  person  or  persons,  entire  strangers  to  him,  drew 
him  into  a  house,  bathed  his  wounds,  gave  him  food, 
and  furnished  him  with  a  disguise,  with  which  he  left 
the  place  on  foot,  early  in  the  morning.  Neither 
clothes,  books,  nor  papers  were  ever  returned  to  him, 
though  he  made  every  necessary  application.  There 
is  little  in  the  excitement  of  annual  or  quarterly  meet- 
ings which  can  sustain  a  young  man  under  an  ignomin- 
ious public  whipping,  in  a  strange  city,  where  there 
was  not  one  familiar  face  to  look  upon.  Dresser  has 
some  other  support,  which  has  prevented  his  shrinking 
from  the  consequences  of  his  opinions  then  and  ever 
since.  When  he  visited  Boston,  some  time  after,  he 
spoke  at  an  abolition  meeting.  We  have  before  us,  in 
the  form  of  an  animadversion  upon  this,  a  specimen  of 
the  newspaper  comments  of  the  time  upon  such  trans- 
actions as  Dresser  was  the  subject  of.  We  quote  from 
the  Boston  Courier  : — 
3 


26  AMOS    DRESSER. 

"Hearing  yesterday,  as  I  passed  Congress  Hall,  the 
screams  of  one  who  appeared  to  be  in  distress,  I  went  up  to 
see  what  could  be  the  matter,  when  I  found  several  hun- 
dred females,  of  all  occupations  and  colors,  gazing  and 
quivering  at  a  spectacle  of  the  most  writhing  agony.  A 
miserable  young  man,  expelled  not  long  since  for  disor- 
derly conduct  from  Lane  Seminary,  was  endeavoring  to 
avenge  himself  on  slave-holders.  *  * 

If  the  women,  such  as  composed  this  motley  assembly, 
cannot  find  sufficient  to  do  in  taking  care  of  their  ragged 
children,  then  let  some  employment  be  given  them,  in  which 
they  may  at  least  be  saved  from  disgracing  their  sex  :  or,  if 
they  must  have  a  spectacle,  let  them  put  the  halter  at  once 
around  the  neck  of  this  martyr  to  revenge,  witness  his 
swinging  fidgets,  and  then  go  home." 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  Attorney  General  of 
Massachusetts,  Austin  by  name,  gave  advice  to  the 
Governor  in  Council  that  any  abolitionists  demanded 
by  the  South  should  be  delivered  up  for  trial  under 
Southern  laws,  (the  sure  result  of  which  is  known  to 
be  death.)  A  pamphlet  by  a  leading  lawyer  of  Bos- 
ton, named  Sullivan,  followed  on  the  same  side,  offer- 
ing a  legal  opinion  that  those  who  discussed  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery  (an  act  injurious  to  the  peace  of  socie- 
ty) might  be  brought  under  the  penal  laws  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  ex  post  facto  laws,  if  no  others  could  be 
found  A  friend  of  Dr  Channing's  wrote  to  him  that 
it  was  now  time  for  him  to  come  forward  :  and  he  obey- 
ed the  suggestion.  During  the  Autumn  he  wrote  his 
tract  on  Slavery,  and  published  it  at  Christmas.  Dur- 
ing the  interval  some  remarkable  events  had  taken  place. 

Our  historical  review  has  now  brought  us  up  to  the 
date  of  the  first  of  the  works  whose  titles  we  have 
prefixed  to  this  article,  and  which  a^e,  substantially, 
annual  Reports  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society.  We  have  arrived 
at  the  most  remarkable  period  of  the  great  struggle, 
when  an  equal  share  of  its  responsibility  and  suffering 
came  to  press  upon  women.  We  have  seen  how 


FEMALE    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  27 

men  first  engaged  in  it,  and  how  young  men  after- 
wards, as  a  separate  element,  were  brought  in.  Many 
women  had  joined  from  the  first,  and  their  numbers 
had  continually  increased  :  but  their  exertions  had 
hitherto  consisted  in  raising  funds,  and  in  testifying 
sympathy  for  the  colored  race  and  their  advocates. 
Their  course  of  political  action,  which  has  never 
since  been  checked,  began  in  the  autumn  of  1835. 

The  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  Boston  is 
composed  of  women  of  every  rank,  and  every  reli- 
gious sect,  as  well  as  of  all  complexions.  The  pres- 
ident is  a  Presbyterian  ;  the  chief  secretary  is  a  Uni- 
tarian ;  and  among  the  other  officers  and  members 
may  be  found  Quakers,  Episcopalians,  Methodists, 
and  Swedenborgians.  All  sectarian  jealousy  is  lost 
in  the  great  cause  ;  and  these  women  have,  from  the 
first  day  of  their  association,  preserved,  not  only  har- 
mony, but  strong  mutual  affection,  while  differing  on 
matters  of  opinion  as  freely  and  almost  as  widely  as  if 
they  had  kept  within  the  bosom  of  their  respective 
,-  c  ts.  I,  on  such  a  set  of  women  was  the  responsi- 
bility thrown  of  vindicating  the  liberty  of  meeting  and 
of  free  discussion  in  Boston  ;  and  nobly  they  sustain- 
ed it. 

Before  we  proceed,  it  is  necessary  to  say  a  few 
words  upon  the  most  remarkable  of  these  women, — 
the  understood  author  of  the  books  whose  titles  stand 
at  the  head  of  our  article.  Maria  Weston  was  educa- 
ted in  England,  and  might  have  remained  here  in  the 
enjoyment  of  wealth,  luxury,  and  fashion  :  but  with 
these  she  could  not  obtain  sufficient  freedom  of 
thought  and  action  to  satisfy  her  noble  nature  ;  and, 
no  natural  ties  detaining  her,  she  returned  to  New  En- 
gland, to  earn  her  bread  there  by  teaching,  and  breathe 
as  freely  as  she  desired.  She  has  paid  a  heavy  tax  of 
persecution  for  her  freedom  ;  but  she  has  it.  Sho  is 
a  woman  of  rare  intellectual  accomplishment,  full  ef 


28  MARIA    CHAPMAN. 

reading,  and  with  strong  and  well  exercised  powers  of 
thought.  She  is  beautiful  as  the  day,  tall  in  her  per- 
son, and  noble  in  her  carriage,  with  a  voice  as  sweet 
as  a  silver  bell,  and  speech  as  clear  and  sparkling  as  a 
running  brook.  Her  accomplishments  have  expanded 
in  a  happy  hame.  She  has  been  for  some  years  the 
wife  of  Mr  Henry  Chapman,  a  merchant  of  Boston, 
an  excellent  man,  whose  spirit  of  self-denial  is  equal 
to  his  wife's,  and  is  shown  no  less  nobly  in  the  same 
cause.  A  woman  of  genius  like  her's  cannot  but  take 
the  lead  wherever  she  acts  at  all  ;  and  shs  is  the  life 
and  soul  of  the  enterprise  in  Boston.  The  foes  of 
the  cause  have  nicknamed  her  "  Captain  Chapman  ;" 
and  the  name  passes  from  mouth  to  mouth  as  she 
walks  up  Washington  street, — not  less  admired,  per- 
haps, all  the  while  than  if  she  were  only  the  most 
beautiful  woman  in  the  city.  The  lady,  with  all  her 
sisters,  took  her  ground  early,  and  has  always  had  so- 
ber reason  to  plead  for  every  one  of  her  many  exten- 
sions of  effort.  She  is  understood  to  have  drawn  up 
the  petition  which  follows, — a  fair  specimen  of  ihe 

multitudes  of  petitions  from  women  which  have  been 
piloH  ,„,  ~-^~r  *u~  -i-i~  ~r  n „„  ,:u  ,u~  ,,onprn_ 

~   i'  "  O      "    "      -/ 

ble  John  Quincy  Adams  has  been  roused  to  the  re- 
markable conflict  which  we  shall  presently  have  to  re- 
late : — 

"  PETITION 

"  To  the  Honorable  Senate  and  House   of  Representatives  in 
Congress  assembled, 

"  The  undersigned,  women  of  Massachusetts,  deeply  con- 
vinced of  the  sinfulness  of  slavery,  and  keenly  aggrieved  by 
its  existence  in  a  part  of  our  country  over  which  Congress 
possess  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  do 
most  earnestly  petition  your  honorable  body  immediately  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  to  declare 
every  human  being  free  who  sets  foot  upon  its  soil. 

"  We  also  respectfully  announce  our  intention  to  present 
the  same  petition  yearly  before  your  honorable  body,  that  it 


MARIA    CHAPMAN.  29 

may  at  least  be  a, "memorial   of  us,'  that  in  the  holy  cause 
of  Human  Freedom  *  we  have  done  what  we  could.'  " 

In  answer  to  objections  against  such  petitioning,  the 
author  of  '  Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston'  says — 

"  If  we  are  not  enough  grieved  at  the  existence  of  slavery 
to  ask  that  it  may  be  abolished  in  the  ten  miles  square  over 
which  Congress  possess  exclusive  jurisdiction,  we  may  rest 
assured  that  we  are  slave-holders  in  heart,  and  indeed  under 
the  endurance  of  the  penalty  which  selfishness  inflicts, — the 
slow  but  certain  death  of  the  soul.  We  sometimes,  but  not 
often,  hear  it  said — '  It  is  such  an  odd,  unladylike  thing  to 
do!'  We  concede  that  the  human  soul,  in  the  full  exercise 
of  its  most  god-like  power  of  self-denial  and  exertion  for 
the  good  of  others,  is,  emphatically,  a  very  unladylike  thing. 
We  have  never  heard  this  objection  but  from  that  sort  of 
woman  who  is  dead  while  she  lives,  or  to  be  pitied  as  the 
victim  of  domestic  tyranny.  The  woman  who  makes  it  is 
generally  one  who  has  struggled  from  childhood  up  to  wo- 
manhood through  a  process  of  spiritual  suffocation.  Her 
infancy  was  passed  in  serving  as  a  convenience  for  fclic  dis- 
play of  elegant  baby-linen.  Her  youth,  in  training  for  a 
more  public  display  of  braiding  the  hair,  and  wearing  of 
gold,  and  putting  on  of  apparel;  while  the  ornament  of  a 
meek  and  quiet  spirit, — the  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  is  not 
deemed  worthy  the  attainment.  Her  summers  fly  away  in 
changes  of  air  and  water  ;  her  winters  in  changes  of  flimsy 
garments,  in  inhaling-lamp-smoke,  and  drinking  champagne 
at  midnight  with  the  most  dissipated  men  in  the  community. 
This  is  the  woman  who  tells  us  it  is  unladylike  to  ask  that 
children  may  no  longer  be  sold  away  from  their  parents,  or 
wives  from  their  husbands,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
adds,  '  They  ought  to  be  mobbed  who  ask  it.'  .  „  .  .  O 
how  painful  is  the  contemplation  of  the  ruins  of  a  nature  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels!'3 — Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston 
in  1886,  p.  27. 

"  We  feel,"  she  elsewhere  declares,  "that  we  may  con- 
fidently affirm  that  no  woman  of  Massachusetts  will  cease 
to  exercise  for  the  slaves  the  right  of  petition  (her  only 
means  of  manifesting  her  civil  existence)  for  which  Mr 
Adams  has  so  nobly  contended.  Massachusetts  women  will 
not  forget  in  their  petitions  to  Heaven  the  name  of  him 
who  upheld  their  prayer  for  the  enslaved  of  the  earth,  in  the 
midst  of  sneers  and  wrath,  bidding  oppressors  remember 
that  they,  too,  were  women-born,  and  declaring  that  he  con- 

3* 


30  MARIA    CHAPMAN. 

sidered  the  wives,  and  mothers,  and  daughters  of  his  elec- 
tors, as  his  constituents.  .  .  .  What  immediate  effect  would 
be  produced  on  men's  hearts,  and  how  much  they  might  be 
moved  to  wrath  before  they  were  touched  with  repentance, 
we  have  never  been  careful  to  inquire.  We  leave  such 
cares  with  God  ;  we  do  so  with  confidence  in  his  paternal 
providence  ;  for  what  we  have  done  is  right  and  woman- 
Jy.»— Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston  in  1837,  p.  84. 

To  consult  on  their  labors  of  this  and  other  kinds, 
the  ladies  of  the  Boston  Anti-Slavery  Society  intend- 
ed to  meet  at  their  own  office,  Washington  street,  on 
the  21st  of  October.  Handbills  had  been  circulated 
and  posted  up  in  different  parts  of  the  city  the  day 
before,  offering  a  reward  to  any  persons  who  would 
commit  certain  acts  of  violence,— such  as  "bringing 
Thompson  to  the  tar-kettle  before  dark."  The  ladies 
were  informed  that  they  would  be  killed  ;  and  when 
they  applied  at  the  Mayor's  office  for  protection  to 
their  lawful  meeting,  the  City  Marshal  replied — u  You 
give  us  a  great  deal  of  trouble."  This  trouble,  how- 
ever, their  consciences  compelled  them  to  give. 
They  could  not  decline  the  duty  of  asserting  their 
liberty  of  meeting  and  free  discussion.  But  Mrs 
Chapman  felt  that  every  member  should  have  notice 
of  what  might  await  her  ;  and  she  herself  carried  the 
warning  from  house  to  house,  with  all  discretion  and 
quietness.  Among  those  whom  she  visited  was  an 
artizan's  wife,  who  was  sweeping  out  one  of  her  two 
rooms  as  Mrs  Chapman  entered.  On  hearing  that 
there  was  every  probability  of  violence,  and  that  the 
warning  was  given  in  order  that  she  might  stay  away 
if  she  thought  proper,  she  leaned  upon  her  broom  and 
considered  for  awhile.  Her  answer  was — "  I  have 
often  wished  and  asked  that  I  might  be  able  to  do 
something  for  the  slaves  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  is  the  very  time  and  the  very  way.  You  will  see 
me  at  the  meeting  and  I  will  keep  a  prayerful  mind, 
as  I  am  about  my  work,  till  then." 


MARIA    CHAPMAN.  31 

Twentyfive  reached  the  place  of  meeting  by  pre- 
senting themselves  three-quarters  of  an  hour  before 
the  time.  Five  more  struggled  up  the  stairs,  and  a 
hundred  were  turned  back  by  the  mob.  It  is  well 
known  how  these  ladies  were  mobbed  by  some  hun- 
dreds of  gentlemen  in  fine  broad-cloth  " — (Boston 
broad-cloth  has  become  celebrated  since  that  day.) 
It  is  well  known  how  those  gentlemen  hurraed,  broke 
down  the  partition,  and  threw  orange-peel  at  the  ladies 
while  they  were  at  prayer  ;  but  Mrs  Chapman's  part 
in  the  lessons  of  that  hour  has  not  been  made  public. 

She  is  the  Foreign  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
society ;  and  she  was  in  the  midst  of  reading  her  Report, 
in  a  noise  too  great  to  allow  of  her  being  heard,  when 
the  mayor  of  Boston,  Mr  Lyman,  entered  the  room 
in  great  trepidation — 

"  Ladies,"  said  he,  "  I  request  you  to  dissolve  this 
meeting." 

"•Mr  Mayor,"  said  Mrs  Chapman,  "  we  desire  you 
to  disperse  this  mob." 

"Ladies, "the  mayor  continued,  "you  must  dis- 
solve this  meeting  ;  I  cannot  preserve  the  peace.7' 

"Mr  Mayor,"  replied  Mrs  Chapman,  "we  are 
disturbed  in  our  lawful  business  by  this  unlawful  mob, 
and  it  is  your  business  to  relive  us  of  it." 

"  I  know  it,  Mrs  Chapman,  1  know  it  ;  but  I  can- 
not :  I  cannot  protect  you  ;  and  I  entreat  you  to  go." 

"  If  that  be  the  case,"  answered  she,  "  as  we  have 
accomplished  our  object,  and  vindicated  our  right  of 
meeting,  we  will,  if  the  meeting  pleases,  adjourn." 
She  looked  round  upon  her  companions,  and  proposed 
that,  to  accommodate  the  authorities,  they  should  ad- 
journ the  meeting.  This  was  agreed  to,  and  the 
women  passed  down  the  stairs,  and  through  the  mob, 
and,  as  the  business  of  the  day  was  finished,  each  to 
her  own  home.  Certain  of  the  fine  broad-cloth  men 
observed  afterwards  that  Mrs  Chapman,  in  the  high 


32  MARIA    CHAPMAN. 

excitement  of  the  hour,  looked  more  like  an  angel 
than  a  woman  who  is  visible  every  day.  She  was  not 
aware  that  her  friend  Garrison  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
mob,  and  she  therefore  went  home,  as  she  had  advised 
her  companions  to  do,  and  sat  down  to  her  needle. 
Presently  several  gentlemen  entered  without  asking 
admission.  She  recognized  among  them  some  mem- 
bers of  Dr  Channing's  church  whom  she  was  accus- 
tomed to  meet  at  worship  Sunday  by  Sunday.  They 
demanded  Mr  Thompson,  saying  that  they  had  reason 
to  believe  he  was  in  that  house.  They  wanted  Mr 
Thompson. 

"  I  know  it,"  said  she;  "and  I  know  what  you 
want  with  Mr  Thompson  ;  you  want  his  blood." 

They  declared  they  would  not  shed  his  blood  ;  but 
she  held  off  till  they  had  pledged  themselves  that 
under  no  circumstances  should  Mr  Thompson  receive 
bodily  harm. 

"This  pledge  is  what  I  wanted,"  said  she  ;  u  and 
now  I  will  tell  you  that  Mr  Thompson  is  not  here, 
and  I  am  sure  I  don't  know  where  he  is." 

She  then  told  the  gentlemen  that  she  had  something 
to  say  to  them,  and  they  must  hear  her.  On  a  day 
like  this,  when  the  laws  were  broken,  and  the  peace 
of  society  violated  by  those  who  ought  best  to  know 
their  value,  it  was  no  time  for  ceremony  ;  she  should 
speak  with  the  plainness  which  the  times  demanded. 
And  she  proceeded  with  a  remonstrance  so  powerful 
that,  after  some  argument,  her  adversaries  fairly  suc- 
cumbed :  one  wept,  and  another  asked  as  a  favor  that 
she  would  shake  hands  with  him.  But  at  this  crisis 
her  husband  came  in.  The  sight  of  him  revived  the 
bad  passions  of  these  gentry.  They  said  that  they 
had  to  inform  him  that  they  had  obtained  the 
names  of  his  commercial  correspondents  in  the 
South,  and  were  about  to  deprive  him  of  his  trade,  by 
informing  his  southern  connections  that  the  merchants 


MARIA    CHAPMAN.  33 

of  Boston  disowned  him  for  a  fellow-citizen,  and  had 
proscribed  him  from  their  society.  Mr  Chapman 
quietly  replied  that  by  their  thus  coming  to  see  him  he 
was  enahled  to  save  them  the  trouble  of  writing  to  the 
South  ;  and  he  proceeded  to  explain  that,  finding  his 
southern  commerce  implicated  with  slave  labor,  he 
had  surrendered  more  and  more  of  it,  and  had  this 
very  week  declined  to  execute  orders  to  the  amount 
of  three  thousand  dollars.  There  was  nothing  left 
for  these  magnanimous  gentlemen  but  to  sneak  away. 
The  women  who  were  at  the  meeting  of  this  mem- 
orable day  were  worthy  of  the  occasion,  not  from 
being  strong  enough  to  follow  the  lead  of  such  a  woman 
as  Maria  Chapman,  but  from  having  a  strength  inde- 
pendent of  her.  The  reason  of  Garrison  being  there 
was,  that  he  went  to  escort  his  young  wife,  who  was 
near  her  confinement.  She  was  one  of  the  last  to 
depart,  and  it  could  not  be  concealed  from  her  that 
her  husband  was  in  the  hands  of  the  mob.  She  step- 
ped out  of  the  window  upon  a  shed,  in  the  fearful  ex- 
citement of  the  momeni.  He  was  in  the  extremest 
danger.  His  hat  was  lost,  and  brickbats  were  rained 
upon  his  head,  while  he  was  hustled  along  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  tar-kettlo,  TTThich  was  heating  in  the 
next  street.  The  only  words  which  escaped  from  the 
white  lips  of  the  young  wife  were — "  I  think  my  hus- 
band will  not  deny  his  principles  :  I  am  sure  my  hus- 
band will  never  deny  his  principles."  Garrison  was 
rescued  by  a  stout  truck-man,  and  safely  lodged  in 
jail  (the  only  place  in  which  he  could  be  secure.) 
without  having  in  the  least  flinched  from  the  conse- 
quences of  his  principles.  The  differences  in  the 
minds  of  these  women,  and  the  view  which  they  all 
agree  to  take  of  the  persecution  to  which  they  are 
subjected,  may  be  best  shown  in  the  eloquent  words 
of  the  author  of  "  Right  and  Wrong:  " 


34  RIGHT  AND  WRONG. 

"  Our  common  cause  appears  in  a  different  vesture  as  pre- 
sented by  different  minds.  One  is  striving  to  unbind  a  slave's 
manacles — another  to  secure  to  all  human  souls  their  ina- 
lienable rights  ;  one  to  secure  the  temporal  well-being,  and 
another  the  spiritual  benefit  of  the  enslaved  of  our  land. 
Some  labor  that  the  benefits  which  they  feel  that  they  have 
derived  from  their  own  system  of  theology  may  be  shared  by 
the  bondman  ;  others,  that  the  bondman  may  have  light  and 
liberty  to  form  a  system  for  himself.  Some,  that  he  may  be 
enabled  to  hallow  the  Sabbath-day  by  rest  and  religious  ob- 
servances ;  some,  that  he  may  receive  wages  for  the  other 
six.  Some  are  forcibly  urged  to  the  work  of  emancipation 
by  the  sight  of  scourged  and  insulted  manhood  ;  aud  others 
by  the  spectacle  of  outraged  womanhood  and  weeping  in- 
fancy. Some  labor  to  preserve  from  torture  the  slave's 
body,  and  some  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  Here  are  dif- 
ferences ;  nevertheless,  our  hopes  and  our  hearts  are  one.1' 
— Right  and  Wrong,  vol.  ii.  p.  80. 

"  There  is  an  exceeding  great  reward  in  faithful  obedi- 
ence ;  the  clearer  and  deeper  views  of  duty  it  gives  ;  the 
greater  love  of  God  and  man — the  deliverance  from  fear  and 
constraint — the  less  apprehension  of  suffering — c  the  more 
freedom  to  die.'  Enjoying  these,  may  we  never  look  for 
any  reward  less  spiritual  and  enduring.  We  pray,  for  the 
sake  of  the  oppressed,  that  Gc>;l  will  aid  us  to  banish  from 
our  hearts  every  vestige  of  seli; -hness  ;  for,  in  proportion  to 
our  disinterestedness  will  be  our  moral  power  for  their  deli- 
verance. Not  until  our  mount  of  sacrifice  overtops  the 
mountain  of  southern  tran«grcssiou  should  we  date  to  ask  the 
^lave-holder  to  give  up  the  bondsman.  We  should  not  dare 
to  bid  him  relinquish  what  he  (however  erroneously)  thinks 
his  living,  till  we  have  first  cast  into  the  treasury  our  own. 
How  dare  we  expect  him  to  incur  the  displeasure  of  his 
friends  and  neighbors,  till  we  have  exhausted  every  form  of 
representation  and  entreaty  with  ours — till  we  have  finally 
said,  in  the  plainness  of  Christian  reproof,  to  the  steady  op- 
ponent of  righteousness  at  the  North,  "  the  slave-holder  goes 
up  to  his  house  justified  rather  than  thou  ?"  The  experi- 
ence of  the  past  shows,  not  only  that  emancipation  must 
come,  but  also  the  manner  of  its  coming.  Our  national 
confederacy  is  but  just  beginning  to  unite,  on  the  only  true 
principle  of  union — to  give  and  not  to  receive.  If  we  of  the 
North  persevere,  at  every  sacrifice  to  ourselves,  in  giving 
the  truth,  which  alone  can  save  the  country  from  the  alter- 
nations of  anarchy,  insurrection,  and  despotism,  doubt  not 
that  there  are  multitudes  at  the  South  who  will  receive  it 


ANGELINA    E.    GRIMKE.  35 

gladly,  at  a  far  nobler  sacrifice.  The  sublime  example  of 
such  as  Birney,  and  Thome,  and  Nelson,  and  Allen,  and 
Angelina  E.  Grimke,  will  not  be  given  in  vain.  A  few  more 
years  of  danger  and  intense  exertion,  and  the  South  and 
the  North  will  unite  in  reading  the  Constitution  by  the  light 
from  above,  thrown  on  it  by  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, and  not  by  the  horrible  glare  of  the  slave  code.  The 
cause  of  freedom  will  ere  long  become  the  popular  one  ; 
and  a  voice  of  regret  will  be  hoard  throughout  the  land  from 
those  who  will  have  forgotten  these  days  of  misrepresenta- 
tion and  danger — "  Why  was  not  I  among  the  early  aboli- 
tionists !"  Let  us  be  deeply  grateful  that  we  are  among  the 
early  called.  Let  us  pray  God,  to  forgive  the  men  who 
would  deface  every  feature  of  a  Christian  community  by 
making  it  personally  dangerous  to  fulfil  a  Christian  woman's 
duty  ;  to  forgive  the  man  who  sneers  at  the  sympathy  for 
the  oppressed  implanted  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  heart 
of  the  mother  that  bore  and  cherished  his  infancy — of  the 
wife,  the  helpmate  of  his  manhood,  and  of  the  daughter 
whom  that  same  quality  of  womanly  devotedness  would  lead 
to  shield  his  grey  head  with  her  own  bosom.  Let  us  never 
forget  through  these  unquiet  years,  whereunto  we  are  called, 

'  The  first  in  shame  and  agony, 
The  meanest,  in  the  lowest  task  ; 
This  must  we  be  !' — 

the  stepping-stone  by  which  the  wealthy,  the  gifted,  and  the 
influential,  are  to  pass  unharmed,  through  the  roar  of  waters, 
to  the  RIGHT  side." — Right  and  Wrong,  vol.  ii.  pp.  81 — 83. 

;:  Angelina  E.  Grimke."  Who  is  she  ?  She  and 
her  sister  Sarah  are  Quaker  ladies  of  South  Carolina. 
Our  author  says  of  their  visit  to  Boston,  to  act  and 
speak  in  this  cause — "  It  might  have  been  anticipated 
that  they  would  have  met  with  a  friendly  reception 
from  those  calling  themselves  the  better  sort,  for  they 
were  highly  connected.  Unfortunately  they  were 
but  women,  though  the  misfortune  of  that  fact  was 
greatly  abated  by  their  being  sisters  of  the  Hon.  Thos. 
S.  Grimke."  This  gentlemen  was,  in  point  of  scho- 
larship, the  greatest  ornament  of  the  United  States, 
and  his  character  was  honored  by  the  whole  commu- 
nity. After  his  death  his  sisters  strove  by  all  the 


36  ANGELINA  E.    GRIMKE. 

means  which  could  be  devised  by  powerful  intellects 
and  kind  hearts  to  meliorate  the  condition  of  the  slaves 
they  had  inherited.  In  defiance  of  the  laws,  they 
taught  them,  and  introduced  upon  their  estates  as  ma- 
ny as  possible  of  the  usages  of  free  society.  But  it 
would  not  do.  There  is  no  infusing  into  slavery  the 
benefits  of  freedom.  When  these  ladies  had  become 
satisfied  of  this  fact,  they  surrendered  their  worldly 
interests  instead  of  their  consciences.  They  freed 
their  slaves,  and  put  them  in  the  way  of  providing  for 
themselves  in  a  free  region,  and  then  retired  to  Phi- 
ladelphia, to  live  on  the  small  remains  of  their  former 
opulence.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  had  any  in- 
tention of  coming  forward  publicly,  as  they  have  since 
done  ;  but  the  circumstance  of  their  possessing  the 
knowledge,  which  other  abolitionists  want,  of  the  mi- 
nute details  and  less  obvious  workings  of  the  slavery 
system,  was  the  occasion  of  their  being  applied  to, 
more  and  more  frequently  and  extensively,  for  infor- 
mation, till  they  publicly  placed  their  knowledge  at 
the  service  of  all  who  needed  it,  and  at  length  began 
to  lecture  wherever  there  was  an  audience  who  re- 
quested to  hear  them.  Their  Quaker  habits  of  speak- 
ing in  public  rendered  this  easy  to  them  ;  and  the  ex- 
ertion of  their  great  talents  in  this  direction  has  been 
of  most  essential  service  to  the  cause.  It  was  before 
they  adopted  this  mode  of  action  that  the  public  first 
became  interested  in  these  ladies,  through  a  private 
letter  written  by  Angelina  to  her  friend  Garrison — a 
letter  which  he  did  his  race  the  kindness  to  publish, 
and  which  strengthened  even  the  great  man's  strong 
heart.  We  give  the  greater  part  of  it : — 

"  I  can  hardly  express  to  thee  the  deep  and  solemn  inter- 
est with  which  1  have  viewed  the  violent  proceedings  of  the 
last  few  weeks.  Although  I  expected  opposition,  yet  I  was 
not  prepared  for  it  so  soon — it  took  me  by  surprise,  and  1 
greatly  feared  the  abolitionists  would  be  driven  back  in  the 
first  onset,  and  thrown  into  confusion.  So  fearful  was  I, 


ANGELINA    E.    GRIMKE.  3t 

that  though  I  clung  with  unflinching  firmness  to  our  princi- 
ples, yet  I  was  afraid  of  even  opening  one  of  thy  papers,  lest 
I  should  see  some  indications  of  a  compromise,  some  surren- 
der, some  palliation.  Under  these  feelings  I  was  induced  to 
read  thy  appeal  to  the  citizens  of  Boston.  Judge,  then,  what 
were  my  feelings,  on  finding  that  my  fears  were  utterly 
groundless,  and  that  thou  stoodest  firm  in  the  midst  of  the 
storm,  determined  to  suffer  and  to  die,  rather  than  yield 
one  inch. 

"Religious  persecution  always  begins  with  mobs;  it  is 
always  unprecedented  in  any  age  or  country  in  which  it 
commences,  and  therefore  there  are  no  laws  by  which  re- 
formers can  be  punished  :  consequently,  a  lawless  band  of 
unprincipled  men  determine  to  take  the  matter  into  their 
hands,  and  act  out  in  mobs,  what  they  know  are  the  princi- 
ples of  a  large  majority  of  those  who  are  too  high  in  church 
and  state  to  condescend  to  mingle  with  them,  though  they 
secretly  approve  and  rejoice  over  their  violent  measures. 
The  first  martyr  who  ever  died  was  stoned  by  a  lawless 
mob;  and  if  we  look  at  the  rise  of  various  sects— methodists, 
Friends,  &c., — we  shall  find  that  mobs  began  the  persecu- 
tion against  them,  and  that  it  was  not  until  after  the  people 
had  thus  spoken  out  their  wishes,  that  laws  were  framed  to 
fine,  imprison,  or  destroy  them.  Let  us,  then,  be  prepared 
for  the  enactment  of  laws  even  in  our  free  States  against 
abolitionists.  And  how  ardently  has  the  prayer  been 
breathed,  that  God  would  prepare  us  for  all  he  is  preparing 
for  us  ! 

"  My  mind  has  been  especially  turned  towards  those  who 
are  standing  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle  ;  and  the  prayer 
has  gone  up  for  their  preservation — not  the  preservation  of 
their  lives,  but  the  preservation  of  their  minds  in  humility 
and  patience,  faith,  hope,  and  charity — that  charity  which  is 
the  bond  of  perfectness.  If  persecution  is  the  means  which 
God  has  ordained  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  great  end, 
Emancipation,  then,  in  dependence  upon  him  for  strength 
to  bear  it,  1  feel  as  if  I  should  say,  let  it  come  ;  for  it  is  my 
deep,  solemn,  deliberate  conviction,  that  this  is  a  cause 
worth  dying  for. 

"  At  one  time  I  thought  this  system  would  be  overthrown 
in  blood,  with  the  confused  noise  of  the  warrior  ;  but  a  hope 
gleams  across  my  mind  that  our  blood  will  be  spilt,  instead 
of  the  slaveholders'  ;  our  lives  will  be  taken,  and  theirs 
spared  : — I  say  a  hope,  for  of  all  things  I  desire  to  be  spared 
the  anguish  of  seeing  our  beloved  country  desolated  with 
the  horrors  of  a  servile  war.  A.  E.  GRIMKE." 


38  ANGELINA    E.    GRIMKE. 

In  answer  to  an  overwhelming  pressure  of  invita- 
tions, these  ladies  have  lectured  in  upwards  of  sixty 
towns  of  the  United  States  to  overflowing  audiences. 
Boston  itself  has  listened  to  them  with  reverence. 
Some  of  the  consequences  of  their  exertions  will  be 
noticed  as  we  proceed  :  meantime  we  must  give  our 
author's  report  of  this  novelty  in  the  method  of  pro- 
ceeding : — 

"  The  idea  of  a  woman's  teaching  was  a  startling  novelty, 
even  to  abolitionists;  km  their  principled  and, habitual  rev- 
erence for  the  freedom  of  individual  action  induced  them  to 
a  course  unusual  among  men — to  examine  before  they  con- 
demned. Only  a  short  examination  was  needed  to  convince 
thenj  that  the  main  constituents  in  the  relation  of  teacher  and 
taught  are  ignorance  on  one  side  and  knowledge  on  the  other. 
They  had  been  too  long  accustomed  to  hear  the  Bible  quoted 
in  defence  of  slavery,  to  be  astonished  that  its  authority  should 
be  claimed  for  the  subjugation  of  woman  the  moment  she 
should  act  for  the  enslaved.  The  example  and  teaching  of 
the  Grimkes  wrought  conviction  as  to  the  rights  and  conse- 
quent duties  of  women  in  the  minds  of  multitudes.  Preju- 
dices and  ridiculous  associations  of  ideas  vanished.  False 
interpretations  of  scripture  disappeared.  Probably  our  chil- 
dren's children,  our  sons  no  less  than  our  daughters,  will 
dwell  on  the  memory  of  these  women,  as  the  descendants  of 
the  bondman  of  to-day  will  cherish  the  name  of  Garrison." — 
Right  and  Wrong,  vol.  iii.  p.  61. 

Angelina  E.  Grimke  was  married,  last  spring,  to 
Theodore  D.  Weld,  a  man  worthy  of  her,  and  one 
of  the  bravest  of  the  abolition  confessors.  There 
were  some  remarkable  circumstances  attending  the 
wedding.  It  took  place  at  Philadelphia,  and,  the  laws 
of  Pennsylvania  constituting  any  marriage  legal  which 
(the  parties  being  of  age,)  is  contracted  in  the 
presence  of  twelve  persons,  was  attended  neither 
by  clergyman  nor  magistrate.  Mr  Weld,  in  prom- 
ising to  be  just  and  affectionate  to  his  wife,  and  to 
protect  and  cherish  her,  expressly  abjured  all  use 
of  the  power  which  an  unjust  law  put  into  his  hands 
over  her  property,  her  person,  and  her  will.  Angeli- 


MR  M'DUFFIE.  39 

na  having  promised  to  devote  herself  to  her  husband's 
happiness,  they  proceeded  to  hallow  their  agreement  by 
prayer  from  the  lips  of  two  of  the  party.  Among 
those  assembled,  besides  the  near  connections  of  the 
bride  and  bridegroom,  there  was  Garrison  who  took 
charge  of  the  certifying  part  of  the  business,  and  two 
persons  of  color,  friends  of  the  Grimkes,  and  who 
had  been  their  slaves. 

A  gentleman  of  the  class  from  which  the  Grimkes 
have  emerged,  Mr  M'Duffie,  Governor  of  South 
Carplina,  wrote  a  remarkable  message  to  the  legisla- 
ture of  his  State  the  same  year,  1835.  He  declared 
therein  that  freedom  can  be  .preserved  only  in  socie- 
ties where  work  is  disreputable,  or  where  there  is  a 
hereditary  aristocracy,  or  a  military  despotism,  and 
that  he  preferred  the  first,  as  being  the  most  republi- 
can. He  further  declared — 

"  No  human  institution,  in  my  opinion,  is  more  manifestly 
ronsi?Ti'i"  with  the  will  of  God  than  domestic  slavery  ;  and 
;  o  one  ul'  !;is  ordinances  is  written  in  more  legible  characters 
than  that  \vhich  consigns  the  African  race  to  this  condition, 
as  more  conducive  to  their  own  happiness  than  any  other  of 
of  which  they  are  suseentjhle."  ....  "  Domestic  nla- 
very,  therefore,  instead  of  being  a  political  evil,  is  the  corner- 
stone of  our  republican  edifice.  No  patriot  who  justly  esti- 
mates our  privileges  will  tolerate  the  idea  of  emancipation, 
at  any  period,  however  remote,  or  on  any  conditions  of  pecu- 
niary  advantage,  however  favorable.  I  would  as  soon  think 
of  opening  a  negotiation  for  selling  the  liberty  of  the  State 
at  once,  as  of  making  any  stipulations  for  the  ultimate  eman- 
cipation of  our  slaves.  So  deep  is  my  conviction  on  this 
subject,  that  if  I  were  doomed  to  die  immediately  after  re- 
cording these  sentiments,  I  would  say,  in  all  sincerity,  and 
under  all  the  sanctions  of  Christianity  and  patriotism,  *  God 
forbid  that  my  descendants,  in  the  remotest  generations, 
should  live  in  any  other  than  a  community  having  the  insti- 
tution of  domestic  slavery,  as  it  existed  among  the  patriarchs 
of  the  primitive  Church,  and  in  all  the  states  of  antiquity  !' 
—  Governor  M'Duffie's  Message,  18.S5. 

When  this  message,  endorsed  by  a  committee  of  the 


40  RESCUE   OF  A  SLAVE. 

South  Carolina  Legislature,  with  General  Hamilton 
for  its  chairman,  arrived  in  New  England,  Dr  Chan- 
ning  observed  in  conversation  that,  but  for  the  obliga- 
tion to  preserve  peace  and  good  humor,  he  should 
have  liked  to  ask  the  yeomanry  of  his  State  (that 
body  of  whom  Washington  exclaimed  in  a  paroxysm 
of  admiration  and  gratitude,  tc  God  bless  the  yeoman- 
ry of  Massachusetts  !  ")  what  they  thought  of  the 
doctrine  that  freedom  can  be  preserved  only  where 
the  efficient  classes  of  society  are  slaves,  where  work 
is  disreputable,  and  where  slavery  is  cherished  as  uthe 
corner-stone  of  the  republican  edifice/' 

The  other  events  which  attracted  the  most  attention 
during  this  year  were  two.  The  first  was  a  desperate 
and  cruel  massacre  of  upwards  of  twenty  persons 
on  the  gibbet  at  Vicksburg  on  the  Mississippi,  on  a 
vague  and  unfounded  suspicion  of  an  intended  rising 
among  the  slaves.  The  other  remarkable  event  was 
the  u  disinterring  of  the  law  of  Massachusetts,"  in 
defence  of  two  women  who  had  been  kidnapped,  in 
order  to  be  carried  into  southern  slavery. 

A  ong  was  oustuv^u  iu  iv^^L  «„  ~^  ^f  ilic  Boston 
wharfs,  and  put  off  again  suddenly,  in  consequence  of 
a  few  words  being  spoken  to  the  captain  by  some  one 
on  shore.  This  awakened  curiosity,  and  some  men 
of  color  rowed  round  the  brig  in  a  boat,  but  were 
warned  off — not,  however,  before  they  had  seen  that 
two  women  were  making  signals  of  distress  from  the 
cabin  window.  The  ever-vigilant  abolitionists  obtain- 
ed a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  got  these  women  out 
of  the  custody  of  the  captain,  and  safely  provided  for 
in  jail.  The  ladies  were  aware  of  the  difficulty  of 
rescuing  kidnapped  persons,  as  in  case  of  acquittal  on 
charge  of  being  a  slave,  the  claimant  is  commonly  able 
to  lay  hands  on  his  victim  again  instantly  on  some 
charge  of  theft.  They  therefore  resolved  to  be  at 
the  Court-house  during  the  trial  of  the  claim  now 


RESCUE   OF  A   SLAVE.  41 

tinder  notice,  that  they  might  not  only  comfort  the 
poor  women  by  their  presence,  but  aid  their  instant 
escape  in  case  of  their  discharge  being  pronounced. 
Unusual  as  was  the  spectacle  of  the  presence  of  ladies 
in  the  Court-house  (except  in  cases  of  murder,  or 
others  of  like  "  thrilling  interest,")  five  of  the  La- 
dies' Society  appeared  in  Court  at  nine  in  the  morning, 
and  surrounded  the  prisoners.  The  claimant  endeav- 
ored to  set  up  a  clause  of  the  Constitution  against  the 
Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights  ;  but  the  bill  of  Rights 
carried  the  day,  on  the  plea  of  an  abolitionist  lawyer, 
Mr  Sewall  ;  and  Judge  Shaw  arrived,  amidst  the  dead 
silence  of  the  Court,  at  his  closing  clause,  tc  whence 
it  appears  that  the  prisoners  must  be  discharged. "  At 
the  word  every  one  rose — the  counsel  on  both  sides, 
the  men  of  color  who  thronged  the  Court,  and  the 
women  who  surrounded  the  prisoners.  The  claimant 
darted  forth  his  arm  ;  but  a  lane  had  been  made,  and 
the  poor  women  were  gone.  The  next  minute  the 
place  was  empty.  One  of  the  women,  fainted  in 
the  lobby,  but  her  safety  was  cared  for. 

Among  the  attendant  ladies  was  a  Quaker,  "im- 
pressed with  a  sense  of  the  duty  of  rebuke."  She 
observed  to  the  claimant — 

"Lidy.  Thy  prey  hath  escaped  thee. 

"Claimant.  Madam,  you  are  very  rude  to  a  stranger. 

"Lady.  What,  then,  art  thou,  who  cornest  here  to  kidnap 
women  ? 

"Claimant.  I  am  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and 
presume  1  give  much  more  to  the  Colonization  Society 
than  all  of  you  together. 

"Lady.  Why  art  thou  here,  then,  hunting  for  those  who 
have  colonized  themselves?  I  despise  thy  conduct  and  thy 
Colonization  Society  alike." 

In  Massachusetts  alone  there  was  an  accession  of 
twenty  societies  during  this  year.  The  report  says — 

"  Five  of  them  are  of  females.     Our  opposers   affect  to 

4* 


42  MOBS. 

sneer  at  their  co-operation  ;  but  we  welcome,  and  are  grate- 
ful for  it.  The  influence  of  woman  never  was,  never  will  be, 
insignificant :  it  is  dreaded  by  those  who  would  be  thought 
to  contemn  it.  Men  have  always  been  eager  to  secure  their 
co-operation.  We  hail  it  as  most  auspicious  of  our  success 
that  so  many  faithful  and  zealous  women  have  espoused  the 
anti-slavery  cause  in  this  republic.  Events  of  the  past  year 
have  proved  that  those  who  have  associated  themselves  with 
us  will  be  helpmates  indeed  ;  for  they  are  animated  by  a  spirit 
that  can  brave  danger,  endure  hardship,  and  face  a  frowning 
world. 

It  is  impossible,  in  a  sketch  like  the  present,  to  enu- 
merate the  acts  of  violence,  or  to  describe  the  mobs 
with  which  the  abolitionists  have  had  to  contend.  At 
Canaan,  in  New  Hampshire,  there  was  an  academy, 
to  which  some  benevolent  persons  had  procured  ad- 
mission for  about  twelve  young  men  of  color.  All 
seemed  to  be  going  on  well,  when  a  town  meeting  was 
called,  and  it  was  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  people  of  color.  Three  hundred  citizens  as- 
sembled one  morning,  provided  with  ropes  and  rollers, 
and  fairly  rolled  away  the  Noyes  Academy  over  the 
boundary  of  the  State.  At  Cincinnati  the  gentry  dis- 
graced themselves  by  a  persecution  of  Mr.  Birney, 
which  caused  the  destruction  of  his  office,  press,  and 
types,  but  which  terminated  in  the  triumph  of  his  mor- 
al power  over  their  brute  force.  At  St  Louis,  in 
Missouri,  a  mulatto,  named  M'Intosh,  was  burned 
alive  under  circumstances  of  deep  atrocity  ;  and  be- 
cause he  was  heard  to  pray  as  his  limbs  were  slowly 
consuming,  he  was  pronounced  by  the  magistrates  to 
be  in  league  with  the  abolitionists.  The  gentlemen  of 
Charleston  broke  open  the  post-office,  and  burned  the 
mails  in  the  street,  on  the  charge  of  their  containing 
anti-slavery  papers.  Such  were  a  few  of  the  events 
of  the  year  1836. 

The  Governors  of  some  of  the  Southern  States  de- 
manded  of  the  Governor  and  Legislature    of  Massa- 


MASSACHUSETTS     LEGISLATURE.  43 

chusetts  the  enactment  of  penal  laws  against  the  abo- 
litionists, or  that  they  should  be  given  up  to  southern 
justice.     The  Massachusetts   abolitionists,  as  is   well 
known,  requested  to  be  heard  against   the  passing  of 
such  laws  ;  were   favored   with  an  apparent  audience 
before  a  committee  of  the  Legislature  ;  were  insulted 
by  the  committee,  broke    off  the  conference,  and  de- 
manded a  full  hearing  as  a  matter  of  right  ;  establish- 
ed all  their  positions,  and  justified  themselves  with  the 
best  part    of  the  community,    so   that  the  demands  of 
the  south  were  thrown  under  the  table,  and  a  Legisla- 
ture was  returned,  after  the  next  election,  whose  first 
act  was  to  pass  a  set  of  resolutions  strongly  denounc- 
ing slavery,  and  asserting   liberty    of  speech    and    the 
press.       The    particulars   of   this    triumph    are    well 
known  ;  how  the  mild  and  brave  Dr  Follen  fought  his 
ground,  inch  by  inch,  in  the  midst  of  insult    and    cap- 
tious opposition,  till  every  heart  and  every  voice  was 
wTith   him  :  how   the  accomplished  lawyer,  Ellis  Gray 
Loring,  commanded  the  respect  of  the  commute  by 
his  readiness,  and  the  power  of  his  moderation  :  how 
Mr  May   tamed  his  foes  (for  the    committee  took  no 
pains  to  conceal  that  they  were  foes)  into  a  gentleness 
almost  equal  to  his  own  :  and  how  the  brutality  of  the 
chairman  of  the  first  committee,  Mr  Lunt,  was  so  atro- 
cious that  he  was  politically  defunct  from  that  day.    A 
slight  circumstance  or  two  may  illustrate  the  state  and 
temper  of  the  times.     While   the    committee    were, 
with  ostentatious  negligence,  keeping  the   abolitionists 
waiting,  the  Senate  Chamber  presented  an  interesting 
spectacle.     The    contemptuous    committee,  dawdling 
about  some  immaterial  business,   were   lolling  over  a 
table,  one  twirling  a  pen,    another   squirting   tobacco- 
juice,  and  a  third  giggling.  The  abolitionists,  to  whom 
this  business  was  a  prelude  to  life  or  death,  were  earn- 
estly consulting  in  groups — at  the  further  end    of  the 
chamber  Garrison  and  another,  standing  head  to  head  ; 


44  MASSACHUSETTS     LEGISLATURE. 

somewhat  nearer,  Dr  Follen,  looking  German  all  over, 
and  a  deeper  earnestness  than  usual  overspreading  his 
serene  and  meditative  countenance  ;  and,  in  consulta- 
tion with  him,  Mr  Loring,  looking  only  too  frail  in 
form,  but  with  a  face  radiant  with  inward  light.  There 
was  May,  and  Goodell,  and  Sewall,  and  several  more, 
and  many  an  anxious  wife,  or  sister,  or  friend,  looking 
down  from  the  gallery.  During  the  suspense  the  door 
opened,  and  Dr  Charming  entered — one  of  the  last 
people  that  could  on  that  wintry  afternoon  have  been 
expected.  He  stood  lor  a  few  moments,  muffled  in 
cloak  and  shawl-handkerchief,  and  then  walked  the 
whole  length  of  the  room,  and  was  immediately  seen 
shaking  hands  with  Garrison.*  A  murmur  ran  through 
the  gallery,  and  a  smile  went  round  the  chamber.  Mrs 
Chapman  whispered  to  her  next  neighbor,  "  Right- 
eousness and  peace  have  kissed  each  other."  Garri- 
son, the  dauntless  Garrison,  turned  pale  as  ashes,  and 
sank  down  on  a  seat.  Dr  Channing  had  censured  the 
abolitionists  in  his  pamphlet  on  slavery,  Garrison  had 
in  the  '  Liberator,'  rejected  the  censure  ;  and  here 
they  were  shaking;  hands  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  It 
was  presently  found  that  a  pressure  of  numbers  com- 
pelled an  adjournment  to  the  larger  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. There  Dr  Channing  sat  behind  the  speak- 
ers, handing  them  notes,  and  most  obviously  affording 
them  his  countenance,  so  as  to  be  from  that  day  con- 
sidered by  the  world  as  an  accession  to  their  princi- 
ples, though  not  to  their  organized  body.  Another 
circumstance  worthy  of  note  is  that  a  somewhat  so- 
phisticated well-wisher  to  the  cause  suggested  that  at 
the  second  meeting  the  gentlemen  of  the  party  alone 
should  speak — such  as  Follen,  Loring,  and  Sewall  ; 
and  that  the  more  homely  and  more  openly  reviled 
members,  Garrison  and  Goodell  and  others,  should 

*  He  afterwards  explained  that  he  was  not  at  the  moment  cer- 
tain that  it  was  Mr  Garrison,  but  that  lie  was  not  the  less  happy 
to  have  shaken  hands  with  him. 


MASSACHUSETTS    LEGISLATURE.  45 

keep  in  the  back  ground.  This  was  mentioned  to 
Mrs.  Chapman.  Her  righteous  spirit  rejected  the 
counsel  at  once,  on  the  ground  of  its  falseness  of  prin- 
ciple. "Besides,"  said  she,  u  we  owe  it  to  Garri- 
son to  protect  him  ;  and  his  only  protection  is  being 
placed  in  the  midst  of  the  gentlemen,  where  his  foes 
dare  not  touch  him.  If  we  do  not  vigilantly  keep 
him  there."  she  continued,  with  swimming  eyes  and 
quivering  lips,  u  he  will  be  murdered  next  riot-sea- 
son— he  will  be  torn  to  pieces  next  autumn."  As  it 
turned  out,  it  was  the  eloquence  of  Garrison  and  Good- 
ell  that  carried  the  day,  and  the  inexperienced  ad- 
viser owned  himself  mistaken.  Such  are  the  small 
facts  which  indicate  the  temper  of  the  times. 

The  day  was  now  passed  when  the  insignificance  of 
the  abolition  movement  could  be  a  subject  for  taunts. 
The  tone  of  contempt  had  been  kept  up  till  the  last 
possible  moment ;  but  that  moment  was  gone  by.  A 
few  legislatures  had  declared  themselves  like  that  of 
Massachusetts  ;  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  ("  ho- 
nest Joe  Ritner,"  the  wagoner's  boy,)  had  publicly 
reprobated  the  disposition  of  Northern  Members  of 
Congress  "  to  uu»v  to  uie  dark  spirit  of  slavery  ;"  all 
the  candidates  for  state  offices  in  Vermont,  both  of 
the  federal  and  democratic  party  were  abolitionists  ; 
and  it  might  be  said,  as  a  general  fact,  that  in  New 
England  the  yeomanry  were  the  abolitionists,  while  the 
large  commercial  and  manufacturing  towns  were  as 
strenuous  in  their  opposition  as  ever.  The  number  of 
societies,  though  multiplying  from  day  to  day,  had 
ceased  to  become  an  indication  of  abolitionists  in  the 
community.  There  were  now  thousands,  more  or 
less  animated  by  the  cause,  who,  for  various  reasons 
(some  of  which  reasons  were  very  good),  did  not  join 
societies.  Dr  Channing  entertains  strong  objections 
to  associations  for  moral  objects.  Certain  State  legis- 
latures found  they  could  effect  more  in  the  Chamber 


46  THE    GAG    BILL. 

for  being  unpledged,  and  being  known  to  speak  from 
independent  conviction.  Many  women,  and  Mrs  Fol- 
len  at  the  head  of  such,  held  themselves  ready  to  join 
at  any  moment,  but  felt  that  more  aid  might  be  given 
to  the  cause  by  fighting  the  baitles  of  the  abolitionists 
out  of  the  circle  of  partizanship  than  within  it.  Such 
have  been  among  the  most  powerful  defenders  of  the 
right  for  the  last  few  years,  while  an  inferior  order  of 
persons  has  been  crowding  into  the  abolition  ranks. 
With  the  good  of  an  accession  of  numbers  must  come 
the  evil  of  a  deterioration  of  quality  ;  and  it  is  best 
that  there  should  be  a  distribution  of  the  noblest  ori- 
ginal spirits, — some  continuing  to  lead  societies,  and 
others  maintaining  an  independent  position.  But,  un- 
der this  arrangement,  the  multiplication  of  societies 
ceases  to  be  a  test  of  the  increase  of  numbers. 

The  President  had  now  taken  the  matter  in  hand. 
General  Jackson,  the  people's  man,  who  talked  of  li- 
berty daily,  with  energetic  oaths  and  flourishes  of  the 
hand,  inquired  of  Congress  whether  they  could  not 
pass  a  law  prohibiting,  under  severe  penalties,  the 
transmission  through  the  mails  of  anti-slavery  publica- 
tions,— or,  as  he  worded  it,  of  publications  "intended 
to  excite  the  slaves  to  insurrection."  Mr  Calhoun, 
the  great  bulwark  of  slavery,  declared  in  Congress  that 
such  a  measure  would  be  unconstitutional  ;  but  that  a 
bill  which  he  had  prepared  would  answer  the  purpose. 
This  was  the  celebrated  Gag  Bill.  We  insert  it  as 
amended  for  the  third  reading,  as  we  could  not  expect 
of  our  readers  that  they  should  credit  our  report  of  its 
contents  !  Here  stands  the  Bill  which  in  1836  was 
read  a  third  time  in  the  Senate  of  a  Republican  Con- 
gress— 

"  A  BILL 

"For  prohibiting  deputy  postmasters  from  receiving-  or 
transmitting  through  the  mail  to  any  State,  Territory,. 


THE    GAG    BILL.  47 

or  District,  certain  papers  therein  mentioned,  the  cir- 
culation of  which,  by  the  laws  of  said  State,  Territory, 
or  District,  may  be  prohibited,  and  for  other  purposes. 
"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assem- 
bled, That  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  deputy  postmaster 
in  any  State,  Territory  or  District  of  the  United  States, 
knowingly  to  deliver  to  any  person  whatsoever,  any  pam- 
phlet, newspaper,  handbill,  or  other  printed  paper  or  pic- 
torial   representation    touching    the    subject   of    slavery, 
where,  by  the  laws  of  the  said  State,  Territory,  or  Dis- 
trict, their  circulation  is  prohibited  ;  and  any  deputy  post- 
master who  shall  be  guilty  thereof,   shall   be  forthwith 
removed  from  office. 

"  SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  nothing  in 
the  acts  of  Congress  to  establish  and  regulate  the  Post 
Office  Department  shall  be  construed  to  protect  any  de- 
puty postmaster,  mail-carrier,  or  other  officer  or  agent  of 
said  Department,  who  shall  knowingly  circulate,  in  any 
State,  Territory,  or  District,  as  aforesaid,  any  such  pam- 
phlet, newspaper,  handbill,  or  other  printed  paper  or  pic- 
torial representation,  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  such  State, 
Territory,  or  District. 

"  SEC.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority 
aforesaid,  That  the  deputy  postmasters  of  the  offices 
where  the  pamphlets,  newspapers,  handbills,  or  other 
printed  papers  or  pictorial  representations  aforesaid,  may 
arrive  for  delivery,  shall,  under  the  instructions  of  the 
Postmaster  General,  from  time  to  time  give  notice  of  the 
same,  so  that  they  may  be  withdrawn  by  the  person  who 
deposited  them  originally  to  be  mailed,  and  if  the  same 
shall  not  be  withdrawn  in  one  month  thereafter,  shall  be 
burnt  or  otherwise  destroyed." 

Mr  Van  Bnren,  now  President  of  the  United 
States,  was  then  Vice  President  and  held  the  casting 
vote  in  the  Senate.  Every  one  knows  his  terror  of 
committing  himself.  What  must  have  been  his 
feelings  when  his  casting  vote  was  called  for  as  to 
the  Ihird  reading  of  this  bill?  He  was  standing 


TEXAS. 

behind  a  pillar,  talking,  when  the  votes  were  de- 
clared to  be  eighteen  to  eighteen.  "  Where's  the 
Vice  President?"  shouted  Mr  Calhoun's  mighty 
voice.  Mr  Van  Buren  carne  forward,  and  voted 
for  the  third  reading.  -"  The  Northern  States  are 
sold  !"  groaned  the  New  England  senators  with 
one  voice.  By  their  strenuous  efforts  the  bill  was 
thrown  out  on  the  third  reading.  If  it  had  passed 
it  wjuld  have  remained  to  be  seen,  as  the  abolition- 
ists remarked,  c'  whether  seven  millions  of  freemen 
should  become  slaves,  or  two  and  a  half  millions  of 
slaves  should  become  free  ?" 

For  men  and  women  engaged  in  a  moral  enter- 
prise so  stupendous  as   that  under  notice,    there  is 
no  rest.     It  is  well  for  them  that  the  perspec  ive  of 
their  toils  is  shrouded  from   them  when  they   set 
forth  :  for  there   is  perhaps  no    human  soul    that 
could  sustain  the  whole  certainty.     Not  a  day's  re- 
pose can  these  people  snatch.     If  they  were  to  close 
their  eyes  upon  their  mission  for  even  the  shortest 
interval,  they   would   find   that  new  dangers   had 
gathered,  and  that  their  work  was  in  arrear.     To- 
wards the  end  of  1836  the   abolitionists    felt    their 
prospects  were  darker  than  ever.     The  annexation 
of  Texas  to  the  Union  seemed  an  evil  scarcely  pos- 
sible to  be  averted  :  and,  if  it  were  not  averted,  their 
enterprise  was  thrown  back  centuries.     Instead  of 
sinking  in  despair  at  seeing  the  success  of  their  foes 
in  flattery,   not  only   the    worldly  interests  of  the 
sordid  and  ambitious  part  of  society,    but  the  best 
feelings   of  the  superficial    and   thoughtless,  they 
made  a  tremendous  effort.     Mr   Child  began  with 
an  admirable  exposure  of  the  Texas  scheme  in   the 
'  Anti-Slavery  Quarterly  Magazine,'  andDr  Chan- 
ning  finished  the  business   (for  the  present)   by  his 
noble  tract.     As  for  the  rest  they  sounded  a  tocsin 
of  alarm  that  aroused  the  land  to  a  sense  of  its  dan- 
ger ;  they  sent  their  appeals,  warnings,  arid  remon- 


TEXAS.  49 

strances  into  every  part  of  the  republic  ;  they  held 
meetings  by  day  and  by  night,  with  reference  sole- 
ly to  this  momentous  question  ;  they  covered  the 
entire  surface  of  the  nation  with  tracts,  circulars, 
arid  papers,  revealing  the  design  of  the  southern 
planters ;  in  short,  they  put  into  motion  all  that  has 
been  done  for  the  perpetual  exclusion  of  Texas  from 
the  American  confederacy.  At  the  extra  session  of 
Congress  in  September,  through  their  instrumental- 
ity, in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  many  thousand 
petitions,  signed  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
and  women,  were  received  by  that  body,  remonstra- 
ting against  the  annexation  in  strong  and  emphatic 
language.  Never  before  had  the  people  made  such  a 
demonstration  of  their  will  in  the  form  of  petition." 
It  was  a  no"ble  spectacle — the  bulk  of  a  nation  pro- 
testing against  an  acquisition  of  territory,  on  the 
ground  of  its  being  wrong. 

In  August  of  this  year  it  became  known  to  the 
abolitionists  in  Boston  that  a  child  was  in  the  city, 
brought  as  a  slave  from  New  Orleans,  and  to  be 
carried  back  thither  as  a  slave.  They  determined 
to  attempt,  the  rescue  of  this  child  by  law.  If  they 
failed,  she  was  only  as  she  was  before  •  if  they 
succeeded,  the  case  would  be  a  parallel  one  with 
that  of  Sommersett  in  England,  under  Lord  Mans- 
field's famous  decision.  The  laws  of  Massachu- 
setts were  appealed  to,  as  had  been  proposed,  with- 
out good  result,  in  similar  cases  before.  This  time 
the  case  was  in  the  hands  of  sound  lawyers,  and 
tried  before  a  courageous  judge,  Chief  Justice  Shaw. 
The  child  was  declared  free  ;  and  her  happy  fate 
decides  that  of  all  slaves  (except  fugitives)  who 
shall  henceforth  touch  the  soil  of  Massachusetts. 
The  newspapers  opened  out  in  full  cry  against  her 
protectors,  for  having  separated  her  from  her  moth- 
er. They  overlooked  the  fact  that  parental  claims 
merge  in  those  of  the  master  ;  that  a  slave  child  is 
5 


50  ELLIS    GRAY    LORING. 

not  pretended  to  belong  to  its  parents  ;  and  that  if 
the  owner  of  this  particular  child  views  the  relation 
in  the  right  light,  he  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  eman- 
cipate the  mother.  The  newspapers,  however,  de- 
clared of  the  counsel  and  others  concerned,  "  they 
can  never  fully  expiate  their  crimes,  until  offences 
such  as  theirs  are  punished  by  imprisonment  at  hard 
labor  for  life."  Mr  Ellis  Gray  Loring,  by  whom  the 
cause  was  gained,  is  one  of  the  last  people  in  the 
world  on  whom  the  charge  of  fanaticism  could  be 
fixed.  He  is  a  lover  of  ease — of  intellectual  refin- 
ed ease — but  still  of  ease.  He  is  in  frail  health, 
and  his  temper  is  somewhat  indolent,  and  very  do- 
mestic and  retiring  ;  his  intellect  is  contemplative, 
and  his  tastes  somewhat  unsocial.  It  must  be 
something  very  unlike  fanaticism  that  can  bring 
such  a  man  out  of  his  retirement  into  the  storm 
which  has  for  some  years  been  pelting  around  him, 
and  from  which  he  might  have  shrouded  himself, 
if  any  man  might.  But  he  was  one  of  the  very  earli- 
est of  the  abolitionists  ;  and  he  has  poured  out  his 
money  and  husbanded  his  intellect  and  his  heart  for 
the  cause,  as  if  he  had  been  the  opposite  of  an  invalid 
and  a  speculative  philosopher.  He  has  his  appro- 
priate office,  like  the  rest.  He  is  the  balance  wheel 
of  the  abolition  movement  in  the  society  in  which 
he  lives.  One  of  his  most  effective  speeches  was 
one  in  which  he  gave  his  reasons,  as  a  cautious 
and  moderate  man,  for  joining  the  abolitionists. 
An  eminent  lady  in  Boston  was  heard  to  account 
to  some  strangers  for  the  conduct  of  the  abolition- 
ists, by  saying,  that  they  liked  to  be  persecuted. 
This  could  never  be  said  of  Mr  Loring,  in  such  an 
opposite  direction  do  his  tastes  lie,  (as  his  and  eve- 
ry one's  ought),  and  it  it  is  equally  inconceivable 
of  this  kind  of  man,  that  he  should  be  flinging  his 
sacrifices  into  the  lap  of  Providence  as  the  heavy 
purchase-money  of  spiritual  safety  and  luxury  in  a 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  51 

future  life — a  species  of  calculation  only  one  degree 
hss  sordid  than  that  of  the  selfish,  who  siezewhat 
indulgences  lie  close  round  about  them.  Such  sup- 
positions fail  in  the  case  of  a  man  like  Ellis  Gray 
Loring  ;  and  none  will  serve  but  that  of  the  irre- 
sistibleness  of  truth  to  a  pure  and  high  toned  mind. 
The  decision  of  Judge  Shaw  in  the  case  of  this 
slave-child  was  presently  followed  in  Connecticut  ; 
and,  within  a  very  short  time,  the  abolitionists  ob- 
tained right  of  jury  trial  for  persons  arrested  as  fu- 
gitive slaves  in  the  states  of  Massachusetts,  New 
Jersey  and  Vermont. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  remarkable  year  1837, 
great  confusion  was  excited  in  Congress  by  Mr 
Adams's  management  of  a  low  jest  aimed  at  him 
by  the  Southern  members.  A  petition  was  sent  to 
him  signed  by  nine  slaves,  requesting  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  expel  him,  on  the  ground  of 
the  countenance  he  afforded  to  the  petitions  of  per- 
sons who  would  put  an  end  to  the  blessed  institu- 
tion of  t-'i.ivery.  Mr  Adams  presented  this  docu- 
ment as  if  it  was  a  bona  fide  petition.  The  uproar 
in  the  House  was  tremendous  ;  but  the  attention  of 
the  members  was  fairly  fixed  upon  the  right  of  pe- 
tition as  held  by  slaves,  and  the  venerable  ex-Pres- 
ident has  since  been  acting  a  more  heroic  part  than 
any  of  his  predecessors  on  that  floor  have  ever  been 
called  to  go  through.  The  name  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  will  stand  out  bright  from  the  page  of 
American  history  for  ever,  as  the  vindicator  of  the 
right  of  petition  in  the  perilous  times  of  the  repub- 
lic. We  pass  over,  as  well  known,  the  conflict  on 
Mr  Pinckney's  resolutions,  the  speeches  of  the 
Southern  members,  (after  their  late  complacent  as- 
surances that  the  subject  of  slavery  would  never 
he  breathed  in  Congress)  and  the  new  President's 
somewhat  fool-hardy  declaration  against  any  relax- 
ation of  the  present  state  of  things  in  regard  to  sla- 


52  CONVENTION    OF    WOMEN. 

very,  in  his  inaugural  address,  on  the  4th  of  March. 
Our  space  is  only  too  narrow  for  the  two  other 
great  events  of  the  year,  which  are  less  widely  un- 
derstood. 

During  the  second  week  of  May  was  held  the 
first  General  Convention  of  Women  that  was  ever 
assembled.  Modest  as  were  its  pretensions,  and 
quietly  as  it  was  conducted,  it  will  stand  as  a  great 
event  in  history — from  the  nature  of  the  fact  itself, 
and  probably  from  the  importance  of  its  consequen- 
ces. "This,"  says  the  Report,  reasonably  enough, 
"  was  the  beginning  of  an  examination  of  the  claims 
and  character  of  their  clergy,  which  will  end  only 
with  a  reformation,  hardly  less  startling  or  less 
needed  than  that  of  Luther." 

The  Convention  met  at  New  York,  and  consist- 
ed of  one  hundred  and  seventyfotir  delegates,  from 
all  parts  of  the  Union.  Lucretia  Mott,  an  eminent 
Quaker  preacher  of  Philadelphia — a  woman  of  an 
intellect  as  sound  and  comprehensive  as  her  heart 
is  noble — presided.  The  (joiivbulicu  sat  for  three 
successive  days ;  and,  by  means  of  wise  prepara- 
tion, and  the  appointment  of  sub-committees,  trans- 
acted a  great  deal  of  business.  Some  fine  address- 
es, to  different  classes  interested  in  the  question, 
were  prepared  by  the  sub-committees,  and  a  plan 
of  political  action  and  other  operations  fixed  on  for 
the  year.  One  resolution  was  passed  to  the  effect 
that  it  was  immoral  to  separate  persons  of  color 
from  the  rest  of  society,  and  especially  in  churches; 
and  that  the  members  of  the  Convention  pledged 
themselves  to  procure  for  the  colored  people,  if  pos- 
sible, an  equal  choice  with  themselves  of  sittings 
in  churches ;  and,  where  this  was  not  possible,  to 
take  their  seats  with  the  despised  class.  Another 
resolution  was  to  this  effect,  "  that  whereas  our 
fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers  have  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  rescue  of  the  enslaved,  at  the  risk  of 


ORTHODOX    CLERGY.  53 

ease,  reputation,  and  life,  we^  their  daughters, 
wives,  and  sisters,  honoring  their  conduct,  hereby 
pledge  ourselves  to  uphold  them  by  our  sympathy, 
to  share  their  sacrifices,  and  vindicate  their  char- 
acters." After  having  discharged  their  function, 
and  gained  some  strength  of  heart  and  enlighten- 
ment of  mind  by  their  agreement  in  feeling  and 
differences  of  opinion,  these  women  went  home,  to 
meet  again  the  next  year  at  Philadelphia. 

On  the  27th  of  June  the  orthodox  clergy  took  up 
their  position  against  the  abolitionists.  The  occa- 
sion was  the  General  Association  of  Massachusetts 
Clergymen.  They  had  long  shown  themselves  to 
be  uneasy  at  the  improvements  in  certain  of  their 
flocks  in  self-reliance;  and  their  anger  and  fear 
blazed  out  at  the  meeting  of  this  association.  Their 
causes  of  complaint  were  two  fold  :  that  there  was 
a  decay  of  deference  to  the  pastoral  office,  and  that 
an  alteration  was  taking  place  in  the  female  char- 
acter. On  the  first  point  they  alleged  that  discus- 
sion of  moral  questions  was  promoted  among  their 
people  independently  of  the  pastors,  and  that  "  top- 
ics of  reform  were  presented  within  the  parochial 
limits  of  settled  pastors  without  their  consent.  If 
there  are  certain  topics  upon  which  the  pastor  does 
not  preach  with  the  frequency,  or  in  the  manner 
which  would  please  his  people,  it  is  a  violation  of 
sacred  and  important  rights  to  encourage  a  stran- 
ger to  present  them.  Deference  and  subordination 
are  essential  to  the  happiness  of  society,  and  pecu- 
liarly so  in  the  relation  of  a  people  to  their  pastor." 
The  complaint  regarding  the  women  of  the  age 
urged  that  female  influence  should  be  employed  in 
bringing  minds  to  the  pastor  for  instruction,  instead 
of  presuming  to  give  it  through  any  other  medium. 
The  movement  begun  by  these  Resolutions,  worthy 
of  the  dark  ages,  was  kept  up  by  a  set  of  sermons, 
in  which  this  magnanimous  clergy  came  out  to  war 


54  DR    FOLLEN. 

against  women — the  Misses  Grimke  in  particular. 
It  is  wonderful  how  many  of  these  sermons  ended 
with  a  simile  about  a  vine,  a  trellis  and  an  elm. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  parties  most  interest- 
ed would  have  thought  of  mixing  up  the  question 
of  the  Rights  of  Woman  with  that  of  the  Rights  of 
Man  in  Slavery :  but  the  clergy  thus  compelled  the 
agitation  of  it.  The  women  themselves  merely 
looked  into  their  own  case,  and  went  on  doing  what 
they  found  to  be  their  duty.  But  men  had  more 
to  do  regarding  it  ;  more  to  learn  upon  it ;  and  the 
result  of  the  examination  to  which  they  have  been 
driven  is,  that  many  newspapers,*  and  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  Anti- Slavery  body,  have  come  out 
boldly  and  without  reservation  for  the  political 
rights  of  women  :  the  venerable  Adams  has  perti- 
naciously vindicated  their  right  of  petition  on  the 
floor  of  Congress,  and  the  clergy  are  completely 
foiled.  Long  before  all  this  took  place,  there  was 
a  clergyman  who  advocated  the  agency  of  woman 
in  social  questions,  in  words  which  are  worthy  of 
preservation.  At  a  public  meeting  in  1835,  Dr 
Follen  spoke  as  follows.  He  is  not,  like  his  cleri- 
cal brethren,  of  the  same  mind  with  Rabbi  Eliezurj 
who  said,  "  Perish  the  Book  of  the  Law  rather  than 
it  should  be  expounded  by  a  woman !" 

"  And  now,  Mr  President,  I  come  to  the  last  topic  of  my 
resolution.  I  maintain  that,  with  regard  to  the  Anti-Slavery 
cause,  men  and  women  have  the  same  duties  and  the  same 
rights.  The  ground  I  take  on  this  point  is  very  plain,  I  wish 
to  spare  you,  I  wish  to  spare  myself  the  worthless  and  disgust- 
ing task  of  replying,  in  detail,  to  all  the  coarse  attacks  and 
flattering  sophisms,  by  which  men  have  endeavored  to  entice 
or  to  drive  women  from  this,  and  from  many  other  spheres 

*  The  prospectus  of  the  'Liberator,'  January  1838,  has  the  following 
paragraph: — "As  our  object  is  Universal  Emancipation— to  redeem 
woman  as  well  as  man  from  a  servile  to  an  equal  condition — we  shall 
go  for  the  Rights  of  Woman  to  their  fullest  extent." 

"  W.  L.  GARRISON,  Editor. 
"  I.  KNAPP,  Publisher. 


55 

of  moral  action.    «  Go  home  and  spin  F  is  the  well-meaning 
advice  of  the  domestic  tyrant  of  the  old  school.     '  Conquer  by 
personal  charms  and  fashionable  attractions !'  is  the  brilliant 
career  marked  out  for  her  by  the  idols  and  the  idolaters  of 
fashion.     '  Never  step  out  of  the  bounds  of  decorum  and  the 
customary  ways  of  doing  good,'  is  the  sage  advice  of  mater- 
nal caution.     *  Rule  by  obedience,  and  by  submission  sway  I' 
is  the  saying  of  the  moralist  poet,  sanctioning  female  servi- 
tude, and  pointing  out  a  resort  and  compensation   in  female 
cunning.    What  with  the  fear  of  the  insolent  remarks  about 
women,  in  which  those  of  the  dominant  sex,  whose  bravery 
is  the  generous  offspring  of  conscious  impunity,  are  particu- 
larly apt  to  indulge  ;  and  with  the  still  stronger  fear  of  being 
thought   unfeminine — it  is,  indeed,  a  proof  of  uncommon 
moral  courage,  or  of  an  overpowering  sense  of  religious  duty 
and  sympathy  with  the  oppressed,  that  a  woman  is  induced 
to  embrace  the  unpopular,  unfashionable,  obnoxious  princi- 
ples of  the  abolitionists.     Popular  opinion,  the  habits  of  soci- 
ety, are  all  calculated  to  lead  women  to  consider  the  place,  the 
privileges  and  the  duties  which  etiquette  has  assigned  to  them, 
as  their  peculiar  portion,  as  more  important  than  those  which 
nature  has  given  them  in  common  with  men.     Men   have  at 
all  times  been  inclined  to  allow  to  women  peculiar  privileges, 
while  withholding  from  them  essential  rights.     In  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization  and  Christianity,  one  right  after  another 
has  been  conceded,  one  occupation  after  another   has  been 
placed  within  the  reach  of  women.     Still  are  we  far  from  a 
practical  acknowledgment  of  the  simple  truth,  that  the  ration- 
al and  moral  nature  of  man  is  the  foundation  of  all  rights  and 
duties,  and  that  women  as  well  as  men  are  rational  and  moral 
beings.     It  is  on  this  account  that  I  look  upon  the  formation 
of  Ladies'  Anti-Slavery  Societies  as  an  event  of  the  highest 
interest,  not  only  for  its  direct  beneficial  bearing  on  the  cause 
of  emancipation,  but  still  more  as  an  indication  of  the  moral 
growth  of  society.     Women  begin  to  feel  that  the  place  which 
men  have  marked  out  for  them,  is  but  a  small  part  of  what 
society  owes  to  them,  and  what  they  themselves  owe  to  soci- 
ety, to  the  whole  human  family,  and  to  that  Power  to  whom 
each  and  all  are  indebted  and  accountable,  for  the  use  of  the 
powers  entrusted  to  them.     It  is  indeed,  a  consoling  thought, 
that  such  is  the  providential  adaptation  of  all  things,  that  the 
toil  and  the  sufferings  of  the  slave,   however  unprofitable  to 
himself,  and  however  hopeless,  are  not  wholly  thrown  away 
and  vain — that  the  master  who  has  deprived  him  of  the  fruits 
of  his  industry,  of  every  motive  and  opportunity  for  exercis- 
ing his  highest  faculties,  has  not  been  able  to  prevent  his  ex- 


56 

ercising,  unconsciously,  a  moral  and  spiritual  influence  all 
over  the  world,  breaking  down  every  unnatural  restraint,  and 
calling  forth  the  simplest  and  deepest  of  all  human  emotions7 
the  feeling  of  man  for  his  fellow  man,  and  bringing  out  the 
strongest  intellectual  and  moral  powers  to  his  rescue.  It  is, 
indeed,  natural  that  the  ery  of  misery,  the  call  for  help,  that 
is  now  spreading  far  and  wide,  and  penetrating  the  inmost  re- 
cesses of  society,  should  thrill,  with  peculiar  power,  through 
the  heart  of  woman.  For  it  is  woman,  injured,  insulted  wo- 
man, that  exhibits  the  most  baneful  and  hateful  influences  of 
slavery.  But  I  cannot  speak  of  what  the  free  woman  ought 
and  must  feel  for  her  enslaved  sister — because  I  am  over- 
whelmed by  the  thought  of  what  we  men,  wey  who  have  moth- 
ers, and  wives,  and  daughters,  should  not  only  feel,  but  do, 
and  dare,  and  sacrifice,  to  drain  the  marshes  whose  exhala- 
tions infect  the  moral  atmosphere  of  society." 

As  no  degree  of  violence  directed  to  break  up  the 
meetings  of  the  Ladies'  Society,  was  too  strong  for 
the  consciences  of  certain  of  the  gentlemen  of  Bos- 
ton, so  no  device  was  clearly  too  low  for  their  pur- 
pose of  hindering  utterance.  When  they  found 
they  could  not  stop  the  women's  tongues  by  vio- 
lence they  privily  sprinkled  cayenne-pepper  on  the 
stove  of  their  place  of  meeting,  thus  compelling 
them  to  cough  down  their  own  speakers. 

The  next  attempt  of  such  of  the  orthodox  clergy 
as  had  professed  abolitionism,  was  to  break  up  the 
Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society,  in  which  more 
freedom  of  thought  was  allowed  than  they  consid- 
ered suitable  to  the  dignity  of  their  body.  They 
declared  the  society  to  be  composed  of  materials  so 
heretical  and  anti-christian,  that  they  proposed  to 
withdraw  from  it,  and  form  a  new  association  with 
a  uniform  profession  of  faith.  The  attempt  failed. 
The  laity  of  all  denominations  protested  with  abso- 
lute unanimity  against  any  new  organization  upon 
sectarian  grounds,  and  the  harmony  of  the  body  at 
large  is  more  assured  than  ever.  The  clergy  have 
for  the  present  succumbed.  If  they  adduce  any 
further  clerical  claims,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the 
stir  will  indeed,  "end  only  with  a  reformation  hard- 


ORTHODOX    CLERGY.  57 

ly  less  startling  or  less  needed  than  that  of  Luther." 
It  is  evident  to  those  who  remember  the  conference 
between  George  Thompson  and  Mr  Breckinridge  at 
Glasgow,  that  it  would  be  unwise  in  the  American 
clergy  to  provoke  an  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of 
their  body  during  the  great  moral  struggle  of  the 
age.  See  the  effect  already  : — 

"  As  there  is  no  royal  road  to  mathematics,  so  there  is  no  cle- 
rical road  to  abolition.  The  principles  are  too  pure  to  admit 
of  caste,  even  though  it  were  the  high  Braminical.  A  gene- 
ral may  not  file  the  abolitionists  to  the  right  and  left,  and 
enter  at  literal  beat  of  drum  ;  nor  may  a  clergyman  claim  to 
be  speaker,  as  in  a  church  meeting,  by  virtue  of  his  office; 
nor  may  a  woman  plead  her  sex's  pernicious  privileges,  or 
pretended  disabilities.  Women  of  New  England  !  We  are 
told  of  our  powerful  indirect  influence  ;  our  claim  on  man's 
gallantry  and  chivalry.  We  would  not  free  all  the  slaves  in 
Christendom  by  indirection — such  indirection.  We  trust  to 
be  strengthened  for  any  sacrifices  in  their  cause  ;  but  we  may 
not  endanger  our  own  souls  for  their  redemption.  Let  our 
influence  be  open  and  direct  :  such  as  our  husbands  and 
brethren  will  not  blush  to  see  us  exercise." — When  clergy- 
men plead  usage  and  immemorial  custom  in  favor  of  unutter- 
able wrong,  and  bid  us  keep  silence  for  courtesy,  and  },ul  the 
enginery  of  church  organization  in  play  as  a  hindrance  to  our 
cause,  and  not  as  a  help,  our  situation  calls  for  far  more  stren- 
uous exertion  than  when,  in  1835,  the  freedom  of  the  wo- 
men of  Boston  was  vilely  bartered  away  in  the  merchant- 
thronged  street.  Our  situation  is  as  much  more  perilous 
now,  as  spiritual  is  more  dreadful  than  temporal  outrage. 
We  have  no  means  to  strengthen  and  nourish  our  spirits  but 
by  entertaining  and  obeying  the  free  Spirit  of  God." — "  As 
yet  our  judgment  is  unimpaired  by  hopes  of  the  favor,  and 
our  resolution  undamped  by  the  fear  ot  the  host  who  oppose 
us.  As  yet  our  hearts  are  not  darkened  by  the  shadow  of 
unkindness.  We  listen  to  clerical  appeals,  and  religious  ma- 
gazines, and  the  voices  of  an  associated  clergy,  as  though  we 
heard  them  not,  so  full  on  the  ear  of  every  daughter  among 
us  falls  the  cry  of  the  fatherless  and  those  who  have  none  to 
help  them — so  full  in  every  motherly  heart  and  eye  rises  the 
image  of  one  pining  in  captivity,  who  cannot  be  comforted 
because  her  children  are  not." — Right  and  Wrong  in  Boston, 
iii.  pp.  73,  75,  86, 


58  ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY. 

If  the  orthodox  clergy  are  wise,  they  will  let  mat- 
ters rest  where  they  are.* 

The  other  great  event  of  the  year  concerned  the 
freedom  of  the  press,  and  was  as  remarkable  in  its 
consequences  as  it  was  interesting  in  itself.  Never 
was  there  a  case  of  martyrdom  more  holy  than  that 
which  we  are  about  to  relate.  Never  was  there  more 
complete  evidence  that  a  man  in  the  prime  of  life,  at- 
tached to  the  world  by  the  tenderest  ties,  and  of  a 
calm,  rational  mind,  was  able  long  to  sustain  the  ap- 
prehension of  violent  death,  and  to  meet  it  at  last, 
rather  than  yield  up  a  principle  which  he  knew  to  be 
true.  Fie  could  not  give  up  truth  for  safety  and  life 
— no  not  even  for  wife  and  child. Elijah  P.  Love- 
joy  was  a  native  of  Maine,  a  graduate  of  Waterville 
College.  He  settled  at  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  at- 
tained a  high  reputation  as  editor  of  a  newspaper 
there.  He  became  a  clergyman,  and  at  length  an  ab- 
olitionist. After  the  burning  of  M'Intosh,  at  St. 
Louis,  he  spoke  out  in  his  newspaper  about  the  atroci- 
ty of  the  deed,  and  exposed  the  iniquities  of  tho  dis- 
trict judge,  and  of  the  mob  which  overawed  Marion 
College  and  brought  two  of  the  students  before  a 
Lynch  Court.  For  this,  his  press  and  types  were  de- 
stroyed, and  he  established  himself  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river,  in  the  free  State  of  Illinois.  But 
the  town  of  Alton,  in  which  he  set  up  his  press,  was 
as  dangerous  to  him  as  if  it  had  stood  in  a  slave  State. 
It  was  the  resort  of  slave-traders  and  river-traders, 

*  A  resident  of  Boston  was  expressing  to  a  European  traveller  one 
day,  in  the  year  1836,  his  regret  that  strangers  should  be  present  in  the 
country  when  its  usual  quiet  and  sobriety  were  disturbed.  "  I  am 
glad,"  observed  ihe  traveller,  "to  have  been  m  the  country  in  its  martyr 
age."  "Martyr  age  !  martyr  age  !"  cried  a  clergyman,  remarkable  for 
the  assiduity"  of  his  parochial  visiting.  "  What  do  you  mean  ?  We 
don't  burn  people  in  Smithfield  here."  "No;"  replied  the  stranger, 
"  because  '  Boston  refinement  '  will  not  bear  the  roasting  of  the  bodies 
of  men  and  women  ;  but  you  come  as  near  to  this  pass  as  you  dare. 
You  rack  their  consciences  and  wring  their  souls-"  "  Our  martyr 
age  !  our  martvr  age  t"  the  clergyman  went  on  muttering  to  himself,  ia 
all  the  excitement  of  a  new  idea. 


ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY.  59 

who  believed  their  interests  to  depend  on  the  preser- 
vation of  slavery.  For  some  time  after  his  settlement 
at  Alton,  he  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  enter  into 
express  discussion  of  the  slavery  question.  At  length 
he  saw  it  to  be  his  duty  to  do  so  :  he  called  together 
the  supporters  of  the  paper,  and  laid  his  views  before 
them.  They  consented  to  let  his  conscience  have 
free  course :  he  did  his  duty,  and  his  press  was  again 
destroyed  by  a  mob.  Twice  more  was  his  property 
annihilated  in  the  same  manner,  without  the  slightest 
alteration  of  conduct  on  his  part.  His  paper  contin- 
ued to  be  the  steady,  dispassionate  advocate  of  free- 
dom and  reprover  of  violence.  In  October  1837,  he 
wrote  to  a  friend  in  New  York,  to  unburden  his  full 
head  and  heart.  After  having  described  the  fury 
and  murderous  spirit  of  his  assailants,  and  the  man- 
ner in  which  for  weeks  his  footsteps  had  been  tracked 
by  assassins,  he  proceeded — 

"  And  now,  my  dear  brother,  if  you  ask  what  are 
my  own  feelings  at  a  time  like  this,  I  answer,  perfect- 
ly calm,  perfectly  resigned.  Though  in  the  midst  of 
danger,  I  have  a  constant  sense  of  security  that  keeps 
me  alike  from  fear  and  anxiety.  I  read  the  Bible, 
and  especially  the  Psalms,  with  a  delight,  a  refreshing 
of  soul  I  never  knew  before.  God  has  said,  '  As 
thy  day  is,  so  shall  thy  strength  be  ;'  and  he  has  made 
his  promise  good.  Pray  for  me.—  —We  have  a  few 
excellent  brethren  here,  in  Alton.  They  are  sincere- 
ly desirous  to  know  their  duty  at  this  crisis,  and  to  do 
it :  but  as  yet  they  cannot  see  that  duty  requires  them 
to  maintain  their  cause  here,  at  all  hazards.  Of  this 
be  assured,  the  cause  of  truth  still  lives  in  Illinois, 
and  will  not  want  defenders.  Whether  our  paper 
starts  again  will  depend  on  our  friends,  East,  West, 
North,  and  South.  So  far  as  it  depends  on  me,  it 
shall  go  forward.  By  the  blessing  of  God,  I  will  not 
abandon  the  enterprise  so  long  as  I  live,  and  until 


60  ELIJAH    P.    1,OVEJOY. 

success  has  crowned  it.  And  there  are  those  in  Illi- 
nois who  join  me  in  this  resolution.  And  if  I  am  to 
die,  it  cannot  be  in  a  better  cause. 

Your's,  till  death  or  victory, 
E.  P.  LOVEJOY." 

Death  and  victory  were  now  both  at  hand.  Two 
or  three  weeks  after  this  letter  was  written,  he  was 
called  before  a  large  meeting  of  the  townsmen  on  a 
singular  affair.  A  committee  of  gentlemen  was  ap- 
pointed to  mediate  between  the  editor  of  the  '  Alton 
Observer '  and  the  mob.  They  drew  up  a  set  of 
11  Compromise  Resolutions,"  so  called,  which  yielded 
everything  to  the  mob,  and  required  of  Lovejoy  to 
leave  the  place.  One  member  of  the  committee,  Mr 
Gilman,  remonstrated  :  but  he  was  overborne.  Love- 
joy  was  summoned,  and  required  to  leave  the  place. 
He  listened  till  the  chairman  had  said  what  he  had  to 
say,  and  then  stepped  forward  to  the  bar.  There, 
with  grisly  Murder  peeping  over  his  shoulder,  he  bore 
his  last  verbal  testimony  in  the  following  unpremedi- 
tated address,  reported  by  a  person  present. 

"  I  feel,  Mr  Chairman,  that  this  is  the  most  solemn 
moment  of  my  life.  I  feel,  I  trust,  in  some  measure, 
the  responsibilities  which  at  this  hour  I  sustain  to  these 
my  fellow-citizens,  to  the  church  of  which  I  am  a 
minister,  to  my  country  and  to  God.  And  let  me  beg 
of  you,  before  I  proceed  further,  to  construe  nothing 
I  shall  say  as  being  disrespectful  to  this  assembly ;  I 
have  no  such  feeling  ;  far  from  it.  And  if  I  do  not 
act  or  speak  according  to  their  wishes  at  all  times,  it 
is  because  I  cannot  conscientiously  do  it.  It  is  pro- 
per I  should  state  the  whole  matter,  as  I  understand 
it,  before  this  audience.  I  do  not  stand  here  to  argue 
the  question  as  presented  by  the  honorable  gentle- 
man,* the  chairman  of  that  committee,  for  whose 

*  Hon.  Cyrus  Edwards,  Senator  from  Madison  County,  and  Whig 
Candidate  for  Governor. 


ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY.  61 

character  I  entertain  great  respect,  though  I  have  not 
the  pleasure  of  his  personal  acquaintance  :  my  only 
wonder  is  how  that  gentleman  could  have  brought 
himself  to  submit  such  a  Report. 

"  Mr  Chairman,  I  do  not  admit  that  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  this  assembly  to  decide  whether  I  shall  or  shall 
not  publish  a  newspaper  in  this  city.  The  gentlemen 
have,  as  the  lawyers  say,  made  a  wrong  issue.  I  have 
the  right  to  do  it.  1  know  that  I  have  the  right  to 
speak  and  publish  my  sentiments,  subject  only  to  the 
laws  of  the  land  for  the  abuse  of  that  right.  This 
right  was  given  me  by  my  Maker,  and  is  solemnly 
guaranteed  to  me  by  the  constitution  of  these  United 
States,  and  of  this  State.  What  I  wish  to  know  of 
you  is  whether  you  will  protect  me  in  the  exercise  of 
this  right,  or  whether,  as  heretofore,  I  am  to  be  sub- 
jected to  personal  indignity  and  outrage.  These  res- 
olutions, and  the  measures  proposed  by  them,  are 
spoken  of  as  a  compromise  ;  a  compromise  between 
two  parties.  Mr  Chairman,  this  is  not  so  ;  there  is 
but  one  party  here.  It  is  simply  a  question  whether 
the  law  shall  be  enforced,  or  whether  the  mob  shall 
be  allowed,  as  they  now  do,  to  continue  to  trample  it 
under  their  feet,  by  violating  with  impunity  the  rights 
of  an  innocent  individual.  Mr  Chairman,  what  have 
I  to  compromise  ?  If  freely  to  forgive  those  who 
have  so  greatly  injured  me  ;  if  to  pray  for  their  tem- 
poral and  eternal  happiness  ;  if  still  to  wish  for  the 
prosperity  of  your  city  and  State,  notwithstanding  all 
the  indignities  I  have  suffered  in  it ;  if  this  be  the 
compromise  intended,  then  do  I  willingly  make  it. 
My  rights  have  been  shamefully  and  wickedly  outrag- 
ed ;  this  I  know  and  feel,  and  can  never  forget ;  but 
I  can  and  do  freely  forgive  those  who  have  done  it. 

11  But  if  by  a  compromise  is  meant,  that  I   should 
cease  doing  that  which  duty  requires  of  me,  I  cannot 
make  it.     And  the  reason  is,  that  I  fear  God  more 
6 


62  ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY. 

than  I  fear  man.  Think  not  that  I  would  lightly  go 
contrary  to  public  sentiment  around  me.  The  good 
opinion  of  my  fellow  men  is  dear  to  me,  and  I  would 
sacrifice  any  thing  but  principle  to  obtain  their  good 
wishes  ,  but  when  they  ask  me  to  surrender  this,  they 
ask  for  more  than  I  can — than  I  dare  give.  Ref- 
erence is  made  to  the  fact,  that  T  offered,  a  few  days 
since,  to  yield  up  the  editorship  of  the  *  Observer'  into 
other  hands.  This  is  true,  I  did  so  ;  because  it  was 
thought,  or  said  by  some,  that  perhaps  the  paper  would 
be  better  patronised  in  other  hands.  They  declined 
accepting  my  offer,  however,  and  since  then  we  have 
heard  from  the  friends  and  supporters  of  the  paper  in 
all  parts  of  the  State.  There  was  but  one  sentiment 
among  them,  and  this  was  that  the  paper  should  be 
sustained  in  no  other  hands  but  mine.  It  is  also  a. 
very  different  question,  whether  I  shall  voluntarily,  or 
at  the  request  of  friends,  yield  up  my  post,  or  whether 
I  shall  forsake  it  at  the  demand  of  a  mob.  The  form- 
er I  am  at  all  times  ready  to  do,  when  circumstances 
seem  to  require  it,  as  I  will  never  put  my  personal 
wishes  or  interests  in  competition  with  the  cause  of 
that  Master  whose  minister  I  am  ;  but  the  latter,  be 
assured,  I  NEVER  WILL  DO.  God  in  his  providence — 
so  say  all  my  brethren,  and  so  I  think — has  devolved 
me  the  responsibility  of  maintaining  my  ground  here  ; 
and,  Mr  Chairman,  I  am  determined  to  do  it.  A  voice 
comes  to  me  from  Maine,  from  Massachusetts,  from 
Connecticut,  from  New  York,  from  Pennsylvania ; 
yea  from  Kentucky,  from  Mississippi,  from  Missouri, 
calling  upon  me  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  dear  to 
heaven  or  earth,  to  stand  fast  ;  and  by  the  help  of 
God,  I  WILL  STAND.  I  know  I  am  but  one,  and  you 
are  many.  My  strength  would  avail  but  little  against 
you  all :  you  can  crush  me  if  you  will,  but  I  shall  die 
at  my  post,  for  I  cannot  and  will  not  forsake  it.  Why 
should  I  flee  from  Alton  ?  Is  not  this  a  free  State  ? 


ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY.  63 

When  assailed  by  a  mob  in  St  Louis,  I  came  here  as 
to  the  home  of  freedom  and  of  the  laws.  The  mob 
have  pursued  me  here,  and  why  should  I  retreat  again  ? 
Where  can  I  be  safe,  if  not  here?  Have  I  not  a  right 
to  claim  the  protection  of  the  laws?  and  what  more 
can  I  have  in  any  other  place?  Sir,  the  very  act  of 
retreating  will  embolden  the  mob  to  follow  me  wher- 
ever I  go.  No,  sir,  there  is  no  way  to  escape  the  mob 
but  to  abandon  the  path  of  duty  ;  and  that,  God  help- 
ing me,  I  never  will  do. 

"  It  has  been  said  here  that  my  hand  is  against 
every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  me.  The 
last  part  of  the  declaration  is  too  painfully  true.  I  do 
indeed  find  almost  every  hand  lifted  against  me,  but 
against  whom  in  this  place  has  my  hand  been  raised  ? 
I  appeal  to  every  individual  present ;  whom  of  you 
have  I  injured?  whose  character  have  I  traduced? 
whose  family  have  I  molested?  whose  business  have  I 
meddled  with?  If  any,  let  him  rise  here  and  testify 
against  mo. — No  one  answers. 

11  And  Jo  not  your  resolutions  say  that  you  find 
nothing  against  my  private  or  personal  character? 
And  does  any  one  believe  that  if  there  was  anything 
to  be  found,  it  would  not  be  found  and  brought  forth? 
If  in  anything  I  have  offended  against  the  law,  am  I 
so  popular  in  this  community  as  that  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult to  convict  me  ?  You  have  courts  and  judges 
and  juries  ;  they  find  nothing  against  me,  and  now 
you  have  come  together  for  the  purpose  of  driving 
out  a  confessedly  innocent  man,  for  no  cause  but  that 
he  dares  to  think  and  speak  as  his  conscience  and  his 
God  dictate.  Will  conduct  like  this  stand  the  scru- 
tiny of  your  country,  of  posterity,  above  all,  of  the 
judgment  day  ?  For,  remember,  the  Judge  of  that 
day  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 

"  Pause,  I  beseech  you,  and  reflect.  The  present 
excitement  will  soon  be  over  ;  the  voice  of  conscience 


64  ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY. 

will  at  last  be  heard  :  and  in  some  season  of  honest 
thought,  even  in  this  world,  as  you  review  the  scenes 
of  this  hour,  you  will  be  compelled  to  say,  '  he  was 
right — he  was  right.' 

"  But  you  have  been  exhorted  to  be  lenient  and 
compassionate,  and  in  driving  me  away  to  affix  no 
unnecessary  disgrace  upon  me.  Sir,  I  reject  all  such 
compassion.  You  cannot  disgrace  me.  Scandal, 
falsehood,  and  calumny  have  done  their  worst.  My 
shoulders  have  borne  the  burden  till  it  sits  easy  upon 
them.  You  may  hang  me  up  as  the  mob  hung  up 
the  individuals  at  Vicksburg  ;  you  may  burn  me  at 
the  stake  as  they  did  M'Intosh  at  St  Louis ;  you  may 
tar  and  feather  me,  or  throw  me  into  the  Mississippi, 
as  you  have  often  threatened  to  do.  I,  and  I  alone, 
can  disgrace  myself;  and  the  deepest  of  all  disgrace 
would  be,  at  a  time  like  this,  to  deny  my  Master  by 
forsaking  his  cause. — He  died  for  me,  and  I  were 
most  unworthy  to  bear  his  name,  should  I  refuse,  if 
need  be,  to  cue  iui  mm. 

"  Again,  you  have  been  told  that  I  have  a  family 
who  are  dependent  upon  me,  and  this  has  been  given 
as  a  reason  why  I  should  be  driven  off  as  gently  as 
possible.  It  is  true,  Mr  Chairman,  I  am  a  husband 
and  n  father,  and  this  it  is  that  adds  the  bitterest  in- 
gredient to  the  cup  of  sorrow  I  am  called  to  drink. 
I  am  made  to  feel  the  wisdom  of  the  Apostle's  ad- 
vice, '  It  is  better  not  to  marry.'  I  know,  sir,  that 
in  this  contest,  I  stake  not  my  life  only,  but  that  of 
others  also.  I  do  not  expect  my  wife  will  ever  recov- 
er from  the  shock  received  at  the  awful  scenes  through 
which  she  was  called  to  pass  at  St.  Charles.  And 
how  was  it  the  other  night  on  my  return  to  my  home  ? 
I  found  her  driven  into  the  garret  through  fear  of  the 
mob,  who  were  prowling  round  my  house.  And 
scarcely  had  I  entered  the  house  ere  my  windows 
were  broken  by  the  brickbats  of  the  mob,  and  she 


ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY.  65 

so  alarmed  as  rendered  it  impossible  for  her  to  sleep 
or  rest  that  night.  I  am  hunted  as  a  partridge  on 
the  mountain.  I  am  pursued  as  a  felon  through 
your  streets  ;  to  the  guardian  power  of  the  law  I  look 
in  vain  for  that  protection  against  violence,  which 
even  the  vilest  criminal  may  enjoy.  Yet  think  not 
that  I  am  unhappy. — Think  not  that  I  regret  the 
choice  I  have  made ;  while  all  around  me  is  violence 
and  tumult,  all  is  peace  within.  An  approving  con- 
science and  the  rewarding  smile  of  God  are  a  full 
recompense  for  all  that  I  forego,  and  all  that  I  en- 
dure. Yes  sir,  I  enjoy  a  peace  which  nothing  can 
destroy.  I  sleep  sweetly  and  undisturbed,  except 
when  awakened  by  the  brickbats  of  the  mob. 

"  No  sir,  I  am  not  unhappy  ;  I  have  counted  the 
cost,  and  stand  prepared  freely  to  offer  up  my  all  in 
the  service  of  God.  Yes  sir,  I  am  fully  aware  of  all 
the  sacrifice  I  make,  in  here  pledging  myself  to  con- 
tinue the  contest  until  the  last.  (Forgive  these  tears. 
I  had  not  intended  to  shed  them,  and  they  flow  not 
for  myself,  but  for  others. )- — But  I  am  commanded  to 
forsake  father  and  mother,  and  wife  and  children  for 
Jesus'  sake;  and  as  his  professed  disciple  I  stand 
pledged  to  do  it.  The  time  for  fulfilling  this  pledge 
in  my  case,  it  seems  to  me  has  come.  Sir,  I  dare 
not  flee  away  from  Alton  ;  should  I  attempt  it,  I 
should  feel  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord  with  his  fla- 
ming sword  was  pursuing  me  wherever  I  went.  It 
is  because  I  fear  God,  that  I  am  not  afraid  of  all  who 
oppose  me  in  this  city.  No  sir,  the  contest  has  com- 
menced here,  and  here  it  must  be  finished.  Before 
God  and  you  all,  I  here  pledge  myself  to  continue  it, 
if  need  be,  till  death  ;  and  if  I  fall,  my  grave  shall  be 
made  in  Alton." 

A  few  days  after  this  he  was  murdered.  His  of- 
fice was  surrounded  by  an  armed  mob,  and  defend- 
ed from  within  by  a  guard  furnished  by  the  Mayor 
6* 


66  ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY. 

of  Alton.  When  the  attack  was  supposed  to  be 
over,  Lovejoy  looked  out  to  reconnoitre.  He  re- 
ceived five  bullets  in  his  body,  was  able  to  reach  a 
room  on  the  first  floor,  declared  himself  fatally 
wounded,  and  fell  on  his  face  dead.  His  age  was 
thirtytwo. 

A  letter  from  a  Boston  abolitionist  to  a  friend 
bears  on  one  page  the  following.  ''  E.  P.  Lovejoy, 
at  Alton,  is  fairly  suffering  the  persecution  of  St. 
Paul.  Alton  is  anxious  for  the  trade  of  Missouri 
and  the  lower  Mississippi,  and  is  willing  to  sacri- 
fice a  few  Abolitionists  to  conciliate  its  slave-hold- 
ing customers.  Lovejoy  has  been  three  times  mob- 
bed," &c.  &c,  &c. — "The  Attorney  General  of  Illi- 
nois said,  at  a  meeting  of  gentlemen  '  of  property 
and  standing,'  that  the  community  ought  not  to  re- 
sort to  violence  '  until  it  became  absolutely  neces- 
sary,' Thank  heaven,  it  is  now  beginning  to  be  Il- 
linois versus  Alton.  The  spirit  is  rising  among  the 
farmers,  and  Lovejoy  will  yet  conquer  the  State." 
The  next  page  begins,  "  I  have  just  heard  of  the 
murder  of  Lovejoy  at  Alton.  He  was  shot  by  an 
armed  mob.  Now  he  will  indeed  conquer  the 
State,  and,  I  trust,  the  nation.  I  meant  to  have 
given  you  my  budget  of  gossip  ;  but  my  heart  is 
very  full,  and  I  cannot  write  more  now." 

In  a  note  to  this  tract  on  Slavery,  Dr  Channing 
had  said,  a  year  before  this,  "One  kidnapped,  mur- 
dered abolitionist  would  do  more  for  the  violent  de- 
struction of  slavery  than  a  thousand  societies.  His 
name  would  be  sainted.  The  day  of  his  death 
would  be  set  apart  for  solemn,  heart  stirring  com- 
memoration. His  blood  would  cry  through  the 
land  with  a  thrilling  voice,  would  pierce  every 
dwelling,  and  find  a  response  in  every  heart," 
These  latter  clauses  have  come  true.  The  anniver- 
sary of  Lovejoy's  death  will  be  a  sacrament  day 
to  his  comrades  till  slavery  shall  be  no  more  :  and 


ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOF.  67 

as  for  the  community, — the  multitudes  who  were 
too  busy  eating  and  drinking,  planting,  trading, 
or  amusing  themselves,  to  know  the  pangs  that 
were  rending  the  very  heart  of  their  society, — those 
who  considered  abolitionism  too  "  low"  a  subject 
for  their  ears,  and  the  abolitionists  too  "  odd"  a  set 
of  people  for  their  notice. — the  shock  of  murder  has 
roused  even  these  from  their  apathy,  and  carried 
into  their  minds  some  notion  that  they  are  living 
in  remarkable  times,  and  that  they  have  some  ex- 
traordinary neighbors.  We  believe  that  no  steps 
have  been  taken  to  punish  the  murderers  ;  but  such 
punishment  was  urged  by  the  newspapers  even  in 
the  slave  States  ;  and  the  cry  of  reprobation  of  the 
deed  was  vehement  from  all  the  more  enlightened 
parts  of  the  Union.  Dr  Channing  did  his  duty 
well.  The  rioters  at  Alton  were  heard  encour- 
aging one  another  by  reference  to  old  Boston.  The 
time  was  at  hand  for  them  to  learn  that  there  was 
a  right  as  well  as  wrong  in  the  time  honored  city. 

It  was  proposed  to  hold  a  meeting  in  Boston, 
where  there  should  be  no  distinction  of  sect  or  par- 
ty, and  no  reference  to  any  anti-slavery  organiza- 
tion, to  express  the  alarm  and  horror  of  the  citizens 
at  the  view  of  the  prostration  of  civil  liberty,  and 
at  the  murder  of  a  Christian  minister  for  daring 
to  maintain  his  inalienable  and  constitutional  rights. 
Application  was  made  to  the  authorities  for  the  use 
of  Faneuil  Hall  for  the  occasion, — Dr  Channing's 
name  being  placed  at  the  head  of  the  requisition. 
The  authorities  were  intimidated  by  a  counter-pe- 
tition, and  refused  the  use  of  the  Hall,  on  the 
ground  of  the  request  not  being  in  accordance  with 
public  sentiment  !  Dr  Channing  published  in  the 
newspapers  a  letter,  of  which  we  give  some  passa- 
ges : 

"  To  intimate  that  such  resolutions  would  not  express  the 
public  opinion  of  Boston,  and  would  even  create  a  mob,  is  to 


68  ELIJAH    P.    LOVEJOY. 

pronounce  the  severest  libel  on  this  city.  It  is  to  assert  lhat 
peaceful  citizens  cannot  meet  here  in  safety  to  strengthen  and 
pledge  themselves  against  violence,  and  in  defence  of  the 
dearest  and  most  sacred  rights.  And  has  it  come  to  this  ? 
Has  Boston  fallen  so  low  ?  May  not  its  citizens  be  trusted 
to  come  together  to  express  the  great  principles  of  liberty, 
for  which  their  fathers  died  ?  Are  our  fellow  citizens  to  be 
murdered  in  the  act  of  defending  their  property  and  of  assert- 
ing the  right  of  free  discussion  ;  and  is  it  unsafe  in  this  me- 
tropolis, once  the  refuge  of  liberty,  to  express  abhorrence  of 
the  deed  ?  If  such  be  our  degradation,  we  ought  to  know 
the  awful  truth  ;  and  those  among  us  who  retain  a  portion  of 
the  spirit  of  our  ancestors,  should  set  themselves  to  work  to 
recover  their  degenerate  posterity.  But  I  do  not  believe  in 
this  degeneracy.  The  people  of  Boston  may  be  trusted. 
There  is  a  moral  soundness  in  this  community  on  the  great 
points  involved  in  the  petition  which  has  been  rejected. 
There  is  among  us  a  deep  abhorrence  of  the  spirit  of  violence 
•which  is  spreading  through  our  land  ;  and  from  this  city 
ought  to  go  forth  a  voice  to  awaken  the  whole  country  to  its 
danger,  to  the  growing  peril  of  the  substitution  of  lawless 
force  for  the  authority  of  the  laws.  This,  in  truth,  was  the 
great  object  of  those  who  proposed  the  meeting,  to  bring  out 
a  loud,  general  expression  of  opinion  and  feeling,  which 
would  awe  the  spirit  of  mobs,  and  would  especially  secure 
the  press  from  violence.  Instead  of  this,  what  is  Boston  now 
doing?  Into  what  scale  is  this  city  now  thrown  ?  Boston 
now  says  to  Alton,  go  on  ;  destroy  the  press ;  put  down  the 
liberty  of  speech  ;  and  still  more,  murder  the  citizen  who  as- 
serts it ;  and  no  united  voice  shall  here  be  lifted  up  against  you, 
lest  a  like  violence  should  break  forth  among  ourselves.  *  ^ 

"  A  government  which  announces  its  expectation  of  a  mob, 
does  virtually,  though  unintentionally,  summon  a  mob,  and 
would  then  cast  all  the  blame  of  it  on  the  *  rash  men'  who 
might  become  its  victims."  * 

"  But  is  there  no  part  of  our  country  where  a  voice  of 
power  shall  be  lifted  up  in  defence  of  rights  incomparably 
more  precious  than  the  temporary  interests  which  have  often 
crowded  Faneuil  Hall  to  suffocation  ?  Is  the  whole  country 
to  sleep?  An  event  has  occurred  which  ought  to  thrill  the 
hearts  of  this  people  as  the  heart  of  one  man.  A  martyr  has 
fallen  among  us  to  the  freedom  of  the  press.  A  citizen  has 
been  murdered  in  defence  of  the  right  of  free  discussion.  I 
do  not  ask  whether  he  was  Christian  or  unbeliever,  whether 
he  was  abolitionist  or  colonizationist.  He  has  been  murdered 
in  exercising  what  I  hold  to  be  the  dearest  right  of  the  citi- 


FREE    DISCUSSION.  6 

zen.  Nor  is  this  a  solitary  act  of  violence.  It  is  the  con- 
summation of  a  long  series  of  assaults  on  public  order,  on 
freedom,  on  the  majesty  of  the  laws." 

A  spontaneous  meeting  of  citizens  was  held  to 
discuss  the  refusal  of  the  authorities,  and  Dr  Chan- 
ning's  strictures  on  it.  The  consequence  was  that 
the  very  same  requisition  was  again  tendered  to 
the  authorities,  with  such  a  mass  of  signatures  to 
it  that  its  prayer  was  granted  with  an  obseqious- 
ness  as  remarkable  as  the  previous  insult.  Fan- 
euil  Hall  was  thrown  open  on  the  8th  of  December, 
and  crowded.  The  chair  was  taken  by  a  respect- 
ed citizen,  who  was  allied  with  no  party, — Mr  Jon- 
athan Phillips.  The  resolutions  were  prepared  by 
Dr  Channing.  Neither  ho,  nor  the  chairman,  nor 
any  one  but  the  organized  abolitionists  (who  have 
good  reason  to  know  their  townsmen)  was  fully 
aware  of  the  crisis  to  which  this  meeting  brought 
the  fate  of  the  abolitionists  throughout  the  commu- 
nity. It  hung  at  last  for  the  space  of  three  minutes 
upon  tb«  lips  of  one  vory  young  speaker,  who  was 
heard  only  because  of  his  rank.  It  came  to  the 
turn  of  a  hair  whether  the  atrocious  mob-speech 
of  the  Attorney  General  should  be  acted  upon,  or 
whether  lie  should  be  overwhelmned  with  the  rep- 
robation of  society  ;  whether  the  abolitionists 
should  have  the  alternative  of  being  murdered  at 
home,  and  being  driven  into  the  wilderness,  or 
whether  liberty  of  speech  and  the  press  should  pre- 
vail. Happily,  the  eloquence  of  young  Wendell 
Phillips  secured  the  victory.  Among  other  discov- 
eries, the  Attorney  General  announced  that  Love- 
joy  died  "  as  a  fool  dieth,"  and  that  his  murder- 
ers were  patriots  of  the  same  order  as  the  Tea- 
Party  of  the  Revolution.  An  extract  from  a  pri- 
vate letter  will  best  describe  this  critical  meeting. 

"  You  will  have  heard   of  Dr  Channing's  recent  exploit. 
The  massacre  of  one  of  our  beloved  friends  in  the  West  for 


70  FREE    DISCUSSION. 

being  an  abolitionist  and  acting  up  to  his  principles,  induced 
Dr  C.  to  sign  a  call  for  a  public  indignation  meeting  in  Fa- 
neuil  Hall.  It  was  a  noble  sight, — that  ball  on  that  day. 
The  morning  sunlight  never  streamed  in  over  such  a  throng. 
By  night  it  has  been  closer  packed  ;  but  never,  they  tell  me, 
by  day.  I  went  (for  the  Woman  Question),  with  fifteen 
others.  The  indignation  at  us  was  great.  People  said  it 
gave  the  meeting  the  air  of  an  abolition  gathering  to  have 
women  there  ;  it  hung  out  false  colors.  Shame  !  when  it 
was  a  free  discussion  meeting,  and  nothing  more,  that  wo- 
men should  have  4  given  color  to  the  idea  that  it  was  for 
abolition  purposes.'  Good,  is  it  not,  that  sixteen  women 
can  give  a  character  to  a  meeting  of  twentyfive  hundred 
men  ?  O  that  you  had  been  there  !  A  hundred  women  or 
so  in  a  drawing  room,  gathered  together  by  a  new  application 
of  religious  and  democratic,  viz  :  Christian  principles,  was  all 
that  Boston  had  to  show  you  when  you  were  here.  But  this 
Faneuil  Hall  gathering,  to  protect  the  minority  in  the  appli- 
cation of  their  principles  was  an  imposing  spectacle.  The 
meeting  began  with  prayer;  no  sound  but  that  sublime  one 
in  stirring  times — the  sound  of  many  feet  on  a  puhlic  floor. 
You  know  that  Dr  Channing's  voice  is  low,  and  Faneuil  Hall 
is  empty  of  seats.  The  crowd  surged  up  closer  round 
the  platform ;  and  ever  as  they  made  room  the  space 
behind  filled  iii.  ±ij«  counting-houses  disgorged  for  the  oc- 
casion, and  I  think  Dr  Chaiitiing  must  have  seen  his  mistake 
as  to  the  good  state  of  heart  of  his  neighbors  and  townsmen. 
One  third  of  the  meeting,  1  think,  were  abolitionists  and  free 
discussionists  (small  proportion  of  the  former) ;  one  third  of 
bitter  opjwnents ;  and  one  third  swayed  to  and  fro  by  every 
speaker.  The  name  of  Dr  Channing  prohahly  kept  this 
floating  third  up  to  the  pitch  of  an  affirmative  note  on  certain 
resolutions  be  had  prepared.  James  T.  Austin  (Attorney- 
General)  was  there,  and  made  a  diabolical  speech.  It  was 
loudly  cheered.  I  gave  up  all  hopes  of  a  favorable  termina- 
tiod  of  the  meeting  then.  He  tried  to  raise  a  storm  of  indig- 
nation, but  failed,  baffled  by  the  effort  of  a  very  dear  young 
friend  and  connexion  of  ours,  who,  from  being  of  a  good  fa- 
mily (Republicanism  !)  was  enabled  to  get  a  hearing^ though 
an  abolitionist,  and  an  agent  of  the  abolition  society.  Wm. 
Sturgis  and  George  Bond,  when  he  was  almost  overpowered 
by  the  clamor,  threw  in  their  weight  on  the  right  side,  and 
free  discussion  of  the  subject  of  free  discussion  prevailed. 
So  much  lor  the  local  aspect  of  the  cause  at  present.  Stout 
men — my  husband  for  one — came  home  that  day,  and  '  lifted 
up  their  voices  and  wept.'  Dr  Channing  did  not  know  how 


SECOND    CONVENTION    OF    WOMEN.  71 

dangerous  an  experiment  (as  people  count  danger)  he  adven- 
tured. We  knew  that  we  must  send  the  children  out  of  town, 
and  sleep  in  our  day-garments  that  night,  unless  free  discus- 
sion prevailed.  Lovejoy  stood  upon  the  defensive,  as  the  Bill 
of  Rights  and  New  England  Divinity  bear  him  out  in  having 
done.  His  death  lies,  in  a  double  sense,  at  the  door  of  the 
church  ;  for  she  trained  him  to  self-defence,  and  then  attacked 
him.  This  new  aspect  of  the  cause,  orthodox  church  opposi- 
tion to  it  as  a  heresy,  has  presented  itself  since  you  were  here, 
and  a  most  perilous  crisis  it  has  been.  I  think  the  ship  has 
righted  ;  but  she  was  on  her  beam-ends  so  long,  that  I  thought 
all  was  over  for  '  this  200  years,'  as  Dr  Beecher  says.  I  have 
just  sent  off  55,000  women's  signatures  for  the  abolition  in 
the  District  of  Columbia — a  weary  labor.  My  brain  turns 
with  the  counting  and  indorsing.  I  wrote  well  on  them  for 
liio  iioiior  of  Massachusetts,  which  is  the  reason  I  write  so 
badly  to  you  now.  I  am  thoroughly  tired.  God  be  with 
you  evermore !" 

The  second  General  Convention  of  Women  was 
held,  as  appointed,  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  spring  of 
the  present  year.  Once,  again,  has  the  intrepidity 
of  these  noble  Christian  women  been  put  to  the 
proof;  the  outrages  in  this  "city  of  brotherly  love" 
having  been  the  most  fearful  to  which  they  have 
yet  been  exposed.  The  cause  of  the  extraordinary 
violence  of  this  year  is  to  be  found  in  the  old  max- 
im that  men  hate  those  whom  they  have  injured. 
The  State  Convention,  which  had  been  employed 
for  many  previous  months  in  preparing  a  new  con- 
stitution for  Pennsylvania,  had  deprived  the  citi- 
zens of  color  of  the  political  rights  which  they  had 
held  (but  rarely  dared  to  exercise)  under  the  old 
constitution.  Having  done  this  injury,  the  perpe- 
trators, and  those  who  assented  to  their  act,  were 
naturally  on  the  watch  against  those  whom  they 
had  oppressed,  and  were  jealous  of  every  move- 
ment, 'When  the  abolitionists  began  to  gather  to 
their  Convention,  when  the  liberal  part  of  the  Qua- 
ker population  came  abroad,  and  were  seen  greet- 
ing their  fellow-emancipators  in  the  city  of  Penn — 


72  MARIA    CHAPMAN. 

when  the  doors  of  the  fine  new  building,  Pennsyl- 
vania Hall,  were  thrown  open,  and  the  people  of 
color  were  seen  flocking  thither,  with  hope  in  their 
faces,  and  with  heads  erect,  in  spite  of  the  tyranny 
of  the  new  laws,  the  hatred  of  their  oppressors 
grew  too  violent  for  restraint.  It  was  impossible 
to  find  reasonable  and  true  causes  of  complaint 
against  any  of  the  parties  concerned  in  the  Con- 
vention, and  falsehoods  were  therefore  framed  and 
circulated.  Even  these  falsehoods  were  of  a  na- 
ture which  makes  it  difficult  for  people  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic  to  understand  how  they  should  be 
used  as  a  pretext  for  such  an  excess  of  violence  as 
succeeded.  The  charge  against  the  abolitionists 
was,  that  thay  ostentatiously  walked  the  streets 
arm-in-arm  with  people  of  color.  They  did  not  do 
this,  because  the  act  was  not  necessary  to  the  as- 
sertion of  any  principle,  and  would  have  been  of- 
fensive ;  but  if  they  had,  it  might  have  been  asked 
what  excuse  this  was  for  firing  Pennsylvania  Hall? 
The  delegates  met  and  transacted  their  business, 
as  in  the  preceding  year,  but  this  time  with  a  yell- 
ing mob  around  the  doors.  The  mild  voice  of  An- 
gelina Weld  was  heard  above  the  hoarse  roar  ;  but 
it  is  said  that  the  transient  appearance  of  Maria 
Chapman  was  the  most  striking  circumstance  of 
the  day.  She  was  ill,  and  the  heat  of  the  weather 
was  tremendous  ;  but,  scarcely  able  to  sustain  her- 
self under  an  access  of  fever,  she  felt  it  her  duty  to 
appear  on  the  platform,  showing  once  more  that 
where  shame  and  peril  are,  there  is  she.  Com- 
menting upon  the  circumstances  of  the  moment,  the 
strain  of  her  exhortation  accorded  well  with  the 
angelic  beauty  of  her  countenance,  and  with  the 
melting  tones  of  her  voice,  and  with  the  summary 
of  duty  which  she  had  elsewhere  presented  :  "Our 
principles  teach  us  how  to  avoid  that  spurious  char- 
ity which  would  efface  moral  distinctions,  and  that 


PENNSYLVANIA    HALL.  73 

our  duty  to  the  sinner  is,  not  to  palliate,  but  to  par- 
don ;  not  to  excuse,  but  to  forgive,  freely,  fully,  as 
we  hope  to  be  forgiven."  To  these  principles  she 
has  ever  been  faithful,  whether  she  gathers  her 
children  about  her  knees  at  home,  or  bends  over 
the  pillow  of  a  dying  friend,  or  stands  erect  amidst 
the  insults  and  outrages  of  a  mob,  to  strengthen  the 
souls  of  her  fellow-sufferers.  Her  strain  is  ever 
the  same — no  compromise,  but  unbounded  forgive- 
ness, 

If  the  authorities  had  done  their  duty,  no  worse 
mischief  than  threat  and  insult  would  have  hap- 
pened •  but  nothing  effectual  was  done  in  answer 
to  a  demonstration  on  the  part  cf  the  mob,  repeated 
for  three  or  four  nights;  so  at  last  they  broke  into 
Pennsylvania  Hall,  heaped  together  the  furniture 
and  books  in  the  middle  of  the  floor, -and  burned 
them  and  the  building  together.  The  circumstance 
which  most  clearly  indicates  the  source  of  the  rage 
of  the  mob,  was  their  setting  fire  to  the  Orphan 
Asylum  for  colored  children ;  a  charity  wholly  un- 
connected with  abolitionism,  and  in  no  respect,  but 
the  complexion  of  its  inmates,  on  a  different  footing 
from  any  other  charitable  institution  in  the  Quaker 
city.  The  Recorder  interposed  vigorously ;  and, 
after  the  burning  of  the  Hall,  the  city  firemen  un- 
dertook the  protection  of  all  the  buildings  in  the 
place,  public  and  private.  The  morning  after  the 
fire  the  abolitionists  were  asked  what  they  intend- 
ed to  do  next.  Their  answer  was  clear  and  ready. 
They  had  already  raised  funds  and  engaged  work- 
men to  restore  their  Hall,  and  had  issued  their  no- 
tices of  the  meeting  of  the  third  General  Convention 
in  the  spring  of  1839.  They  have  since  applied 
for  damages,  which  we  believe  the  city  agreed, 
without  demur,  to  pay.  It  is  astonishing  that  the 
absurdity  of  persecuting  such  people  as  these  has 
not  long  been  apparent  to  all  eyes.  Their  foes 
7 


74  THE    SOUTH. 

might  as  well  wage  a  pop-gun  war  against  the  con- 
stellations of  the  sky. 

It  appears  as  if  each  State  had  to  pass  through 
riot  to  rectitude  on  this  mighty  question.  Every 
.State  which  has  now  an  abolition  legislature,  and 
is  officered  by  abolitionists,  has.  we  believe,  gone 
through  this  process.  The  course  of  events  seems 
to  be  this  :  the  abolitionists  are  first  ridiculed,  as  a 
handful  of  insignificant  fanatics ;  then  the  mer- 
chants begin  to  be  alarmed  for  their  purses,  and  the 
aristocracy  for  their  prerogatives ;  the  clergy  and 
professional  men  act  arid  speak  for  the  merchant- 
interest,  and  engage  the  authorities  to  discounte- 
nance the  movement,  which  they  do  by  threatening 
penal  laws,  or  uttering  warnings  of  mobs.  A  mob 
ensues,  of  course  ;  the  apprehensions  of  the  magis- 
tracy furnishing  the  broadest  hint.  The  business 
is  brought  home  to  the  bosom  of  every  citizen.  All, 
especially  the  young  men,  look  into  the  matter,  ral- 
ly in  defence  of  the  law,  elect  a  good  legislature, 
look  carefully  to  their  magistracy,  and  the  right 
prevails.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  process  in 
every  State  disgraced  by  an  anti-abolition  riot.  We 
trust  it  may  be  so  in  Pennsylvania.  Mrs  Child  said 
long  ago  that  this  evil  spirit  having  so  long  inti- 
mately possessed  the  nation,  we  cannot  expect  that 
it  should  be  cast  out  without  much  rending  and 
tearing. 

The  abolitionists,  as  a  body,  are  now  fairly  rec- 
ognized by  the  South.  Mr  Birney  has  been  applied 
to  by  Mr  Elmore,  a  southern  member  of  Congress, 
under  the  sanction  of  Mr  Calhoun  himself,  for  a 
fulfilment  of  his  offer  to  lay  open  all  the  affairs  of 
the  anti-slavery  body.  The  affairs  of  the  abolition- 
ists have  from  the  beginning  been  open  to  all  the 
world;  the  evil  has  been  that  the  world  would  not 
attend  to  them.  Now,  however,  "the  South  de- 
sires to  learn  the  depth,  height  and  breadth  of  the 


MR    BIRNEY.  75 

storm  which  impends  over  her."  She  has  learned 
what  she  wants,  for  Mr  Birney  has  forwarded  ex- 
ceedingly full  replies  to  the  fourteen  queries  pro- 
posed by  the  southern  representatives  and  senators. 
This  may  be  regarded  as  an  extremely  fortunate 
event.  It  is  a  most  cheering  testimony  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  cause ;  and  it  affords  some  hope  that 
the  South  will  take  warning  in  time,  and  present 
an  honorable  exception  to  the  conduct  and  catas- 
trophe of  a  struggle  for  and  relinquishment  of  irre- 
sponsible power.  The  hope  is  faint ;  for  instances 
are  rare,  if  not  unknown,  of  privileged  bodies  sur- 
rendering their  social  privileges  on  a  merely  moral 
summons.  But  again,  instances  aro  rare,  if  not  un- 
known, of  a  privileged  class  appealing  to  a  mag- 
nanimous foe  for  an  exposure  of  his  forces,  his  de- 
signs, and  his  expectations.  Whatever  irritability 
may  display  itself  in  the  conduct  of  the  appeal,  the 
fact  is  highly  honorable  to  both  parties.  To  our 
minds,  it  is  one  of  the  most  striking  circumstances 
of  this  inn jostic  story.  Mr  Birney's  reply  is  far  too 
long  to  be  given  here,  even  in  the  briefest  abstract. 
It  is  extremely  interesting,  from  the  honorable  ac- 
curacy and  candor  of  its  statements,  and  its  absti- 
nence from  all  manifestation  of  the  triumph  which 
its  facts  might  well  justify.  These  important  pa- 
pers go  by'the  name  of  the  '  Elmore  Correspon- 
dence.' 

The  most  melancholy  feature  of  the  struggle — more 
so  than  even  the  conduct  of  the  clergy  (which  has 
been  far  more  extraordinary  than  we  have  had  space 
to- relate) — is  the  degeneracy  of  Congress.  The  right 
of  petition  has  been  virtually  annihilated  for  these 
three  years  past ;  and  the  nation  has  been  left  un- 
represented on  the  most  important  question  which 
has  been  occupying  the  nation's  mind.  The  peo- 
ple hold  their  remedy  in  the  ballot  box.  The  elec- 
tions are  now  going  forward  ;  and  we  doubt  not 


76  JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

the  electors  will  take  care  that  such  a  suspen- 
sion of  their  rights  does  not  happen  again.  We  un- 
derstand, indeed,  that  the  usual  federal  and  de- 
mocratic questions  are  in  many  cases  laid  aside  at 
the  present  elections  for  the  all-important  one  of 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  the  prohibition  of  the  inter-state  slave  trade. 
Happen  what  may,  it  will  not  be  forgotten  in  fu- 
ture times  that  there  was  one  man  who  did  his  du- 
ty. Several  others  tried,  bat.  found  circumstances  too 
strong  for  them.  John  Quincy  Adams  has  con- 
quered circumstances.  Speculation  has  for  some 
years  been  busy  on  the  fact  of  this  gentleman  being 
a  Massachusetts  representative  after  having  been 
President  of  the  United  States.  While  some  hon- 
ored the  succession  of  offices  as  a  proof  of  the 
highest  patriotism,  others  magnanimously  interpre- 
ted it  is  an  indication  of  vain,  restless  ambition. 
His  late  conduct  must  convince  all  fair-minded  ob- 
servers of  the  intrepidity  and  purity  of  his  patriot- 
ism. At  his  years  it  is  impossible  that  he  can  look 
to  the  anti-slavery  party  for  any  rewards  adequate 
to  what  he  has  risked  and  undergone  in  defence  of 
their  rights.  Inch  by  inch  has  he  maintained 
alone  the  ground  of  constitutional  rights  ;  month 
after  month  has  he  painfully  struggled  for  speech, 
and  been  gagged  by  unconstitutional  resolutions 
and  ex-post  facto  rules.  We  will  not  enter  upon  the 
grievous  tale  of  the  insults  that  have  been  heaped 
upon  his  revered  head,  and  the  moral  inflictions  by 
which  his  noble  heart  has  been  wrung.  This  man 
was  (by  universal  acknowledgment)  the  purest  of 
the  American  Presidents,  except  Washington  ; 
and  he  has  lived  to  see  the  nation  he  governed 
virtually  deprived  (however  temporarily)  of  their 
rights  of  petition  and  free  discussion  ;  and 
when  he  protested  against  this  privation,  one 
member  started  up  to  say  that  he  considered  Mr 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  77 

Adams  to  be  in  the  wane  of  his  intellect,  and  an- 
other to  call  him  a  sort  of  stormy  petrel,  delighting 
in  commotion.  (This  is  of  a  piece  with  the  assur- 
ance that  the  abolitionists  like  to  be  persecuted.) 
The  more  pertinaciously  his  mouth  was  stopped, 
the  more  vigilantly  did  Mr  Adams  watch  for  an 
opportunity  to  speak.  At  last  he  found  it.  Under 
cover  of  remarks  on  the  Report  of  the  Committee 
of  Foreign  Affairs  in  relation  to  Texas,  he  deliver- 
ed himself  of  all  his  protests  and  all  his  opinions  on 
the  vicious  legislation  of  the  last  two  sessions  on 
slavery,  Texas,  and  the  reception  of  petitions.  For 
an  hour  a  day  during  twelve  days  he  spoke,  under 
perpetual  calls  to  order,  but  with  power  to  proceed 
till  he  chose  to  stop.  We  subjoin  an  extract  from 
that  hour-long  oratory,  which  will  not  be  forgotten 
by  any  of  the  hundreds  who  heard  it,  or  by  any  of 
the  millions  who  owe  to  him  the  patient  and  intrep- 
id assertion  of  their  constitutional  rights  in  the 
martyr-age  of  the  republic. 

"  Thursday,  June  28,  1838. 

"  Mr  Adams  resumed  the  floor  in  support  of  his  resolu- 
tion respecting  the  admission  of  Texas  to  the  Union. 

"  When  I  last  addressed  the  House  I  was  engaged  in  dis- 
cussing the  principle  asserted  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs  ;  the  practical  effect  of  which 
must  be  to  deprive  one  half  of  the  population  of  these  Uni- 
ted States  of  the  right  to  petition  before  this  House.  I  say 
it  goes  to  deprive  the  entire  female  sex  of  all  right  of  pe- 
tition here.  The  principle  is  not  an  abstract  principle.  It 
is  stated  abstractedly,  in  the  report  of  his  remarks,  which  I 
have  once  read  to  the  House.  1  will  read  it  again  ;  it  is 
highly  important,  and  well  deserving  of  the  attention  of 
this  House,  and  its  solemn  decision.  It  referred  to  all  peti- 
tions on  the  subject  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  this 
Union  which  come  from  women  : — 

"  c  Many  of  these  petitions  were  signed  by  women.  He 
always  felt  regret  when  petitions  thus~signed  were  present- 
ed to  the  House  relating  to  political  matters.  He  thought 
these  females  could  have  a  sufficient  field  for  the  exercise 
of  their  influence  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  to  their 


78  JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

fathers,  their  husbands,  or  their  children,  cheering  the  do- 
mestic circle,  and  shedding  over  it  the  mild  radiance  of  the 
social  virtues,  instead  of  rushing  into  the  fierce  struggles  of 
political  life.  He  felt  sorrow  at  this  departure  from  their 
proper  sphere,  in  which  there  was  abundant  room  for  the 
practice  of  the  most  extensive  benevolence  and  philanthro- 
py, because  he  considered  it  discreditable,  not  only  to  their 
own  particular  section  of  the  country,  but  also  to  the  na- 
tional character,  and  thus  giving  him  a  right  to  express  this 
opinion.' 

"  Now,  I  say,  in  the  first  place,  that  this  principle  is  er- 
roneous, vicious.  Asa  moral  principle  it  is  vicious  ;  and  in 
its  application  the  chairman  of  the  committee  made  it  the 
ground  of  a  reproach  to  the  females  of  my  district  ;  thous- 
ands of  whom,  besides  those  238  who  signed  the  first  peti- 
tion I  presented  here,  have  signed  similar  petitions.  That 
is  his  application.  And  what  is  the  consequence  intended 
to  follow?  Why,  that  petitions  of  that  sort  deserve  no 
consideration,  and  that  the  committee  are,  therefore,  fully 
justified  in  never  looking  into  one  of  them.  And  this,  be- 
cause they  conae  from  women;  and  women,  departing  from 
their  own  proper  sphere,  in  the  domestic  circle,  do  what  is 
discreditable,  not  only  to  their  own  particular  district  of 
country,  but  to  the  national  character.  There  is  the  broad 
principle,  and  there  is  its  application.  This  has  compelled 
me  to  probe  it  to  the  bottom,  and  to  show  that  it  is  funda- 
mentally wrong,  that  it  is  vicious,  and  the  very  reverse  of 
that  which  should  prevail. 

"  Why  does  it  follow  that  women  are  fitted  for  nothing 
but  the  cares  of  domestic  life  ?  for  bearing  children,  and 
cooking  the  food  of  a  family  ?  devoting  all  their  time  to 
the  domestic  circle— to  promoting  the  immediate  personal 
comfort  of  their  husbands,  brothers,  and  sons  ?  Observe,, 
sir,  the  point  of  departure  between  the  chairman  of  the 
committee  and  myself.  I  admit  that  it  is  their  duty  to  at- 
tend to  these  things.  I  subscribe  fully  to  the  elegant  com- 
pliment passed  by  him  upon  those  members  of  the  female 
sex  who  devote  their  time  to  these  duties.  But  I  say  that 
the  correct  principle  is,  that  women  are  not  only  justified, 
but  exhibit  the  most  exalted  virtue  when  they  do  depart 
from  the  domestic  circle,  and  enter  on  the  concerns  of  their 
country,  of  humanity, and  of  their  God.  The  mere  depar- 
ture of  women  from  the  duties  of  the  domestic  circle,  far 
from  being  a  reproach  to  her,  is  a  virtue  of  the  highest  or- 
der, when  it  is  done  from  purity  of  motive,  by  appropriate 
means,  and  towards  a  virtuous  purpose.  There  is  the  true 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  79 

distinction.  The  motive  must  be  pure,  the  means  appro- 
priate, and  the  purpose  good.  And  I  say  that  woman,  by 
the  discharge  of  such  duties,  has  manifested  a  virtue  which 
is  even  above  the  virtues  of  mankind,  and  approaches  to  a 
superior  nature.  That  is  the  principle  I  maintain,  and 
which  the  chairman  of  the  committee  has  to  refute,  if  he 
applies  the  position  he  has  taken  to  the  mothers,  the  sisters, 
and  the  daughters  of  the  men  of  my  district  who  voted  to 
send  me  here.  Now  I  aver,  further,  that  in  the  instance  to 
which  his  observation  refers,  viz.  in  the  act  of  petitioning 
against  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union,  the  motive 
was  pure,  the  means  appropriate,  and  the  purpose  virtuous, 
in  the  highest  degree.  As  an  evident  proof  of  this,  I  recur  to 
the  particular  petition  from  which  this  debate  took  its  rise, 
viz.  to  the  first  petition  I  presented  here  against  the  annexa- 
tion— a  petition  consisting  of  three  lines,  and  signed  by  238 
women  of  Plymouth,  a  principal  town  in  my  own  district. 
Their  words  are — 

"  (  The  undersigned,  women  of  Plymouth  (Mass-),  thor- 
oughly aware  of  the  sinfulness  of  slavery,  and  the  conse- 
quent impolicy  and  disastrous  tendency  of  its  extension  in 
our  country,  do  most  respectfully  remonstrate,  with  all  our 
souls,  against  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States, 
as  a  slave-holding  territory.' 

"  Those  are  the  words  of  their  memorial.  And  I  say 
that,  in  presenting  it  here,  their  motive  was  pure,  and  of 
the  highest  order  of  purity.  They  petitioned  under  a  con- 
viction that  the  consequence  of  the  annexation  would  be 
the  advancement  of  that  which  is  sin  in  the  sight  of  God, 
viz.  slavery.  I  say,  further,  that  the  means  were  appro- 
priate, because  it  is  Congress  who  must  decide  on  the  ques- 
tion ;  and,  therefore,  it  is  proper  that  they  should  petition 
Congress  if  they  wish  to  prevent  the  annexation.  And  I 
say,  in  the  third  place,  that  the  end  was  virtuous,  pure,  and 
of  the  most  exalted  character,  viz.  to  prevent  the  perpetua- 
tion and  spread  of  slavery  through  America.  I  say,  more- 
over, that  I  subscribe,  in  my  own  person,  to  every  word  the 
petition  contains.  I  do  believe  slavery  to  be  a  sin  before 
God,  and  that  is  the  reason,  and  the  only  insurmountable 
reason,  why  we  should  refuse  to  annex  Texas  to  this  Union. 
For,  although  the  amendment  I  have  moved  declares  that 
neither  Congress  nor  any  other  portion  of  this  Government 
is  of  itself  competent  to  make  this  annexation,  yet  I  hold  it 
not  impossible,  with  the  consent  of  the  people  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  and  of  the  people  of  Texas,  that  a  Union  might 
properly  be  accomplished.  It  might  be  effected  by  an  a- 


80  JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS. 

mendment  of  the  Constitution,  submitted  to  the  approval  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  as  all  other  amendments 
are  to  he  submitted,  and  by  afterwards  submitting  the  ques- 
tion to  the  decision  of  the  people  of  both  States. — I  admit 
that  in  that  way  such  a  union  might  be,  and  may  be,  form- 
ed. But  not  with  a  State  tolerating  slavery  ;  not  with  a 
people  who  have  converted  freemen  into  slaves  ;  not  so 
long  as  slavery  exists  in  Texas.  So  long  as  that  continues, 
I  do  not  hold  it  practicable,  in  any  form,  that  the  two  nations 
should  ever  be  united.  Thus  far  I  go.  I  concur  in  every 
word  of  the  petition  I  had  the  honor  to  present ;  and  I  hold 
it  to  be  proof  of  pure  patriotism,  of  sincere  piety,  and  of 
every  virtue  that  can  adorn  the  female  character. 

"  With  regard  to  this  principle  I  am  willing  it  shall  be 
discussed.  I  hope  it  will  be  discussed,  not  only  in  this 
House,  but  throughout  this  nation. 

"  I  should  not  have  detained  the  House  so  long  in  estab- 
lishing this  position, had  I  not  felt  it  a  duty  I  owed  to  my 
constituents  to  vindicate  the  characters  of  their  wives  and 
sisters  and  daughters,  who  were  assailed  by  the  sentiment 
I  have  opposed. 

"  And  now,  to  close  with  a  little  anecdote,  which  I  hope 
will  put  the  House  into  a  good  humour.  In  consequence  of 
the  stand  I  have  taken  here,  on  the  subject  of  the  right  of 
petition,  a  great  number  of  petitions  and  memorials  have 
been  sent  to  me,  many  of  which  I  did  not  present  ;  some 
were  sent  with  a  sinister  purpose — to  make  me  ridiculous, 
or  the  right  of  petition  ridiculous.  Others  were  of  a  more 
atrocious  character,  and  the  language  in  which  they  were 
expressed  would  have,  of  itself,  precluded  their  reception 
here.  But  there  is  one  from  a  man  whom  I  take  to  be  a 
profound  humorist,  and  a  keen  and  deep  satirist.  His  peti- 
tion is,  that  Congress  would  enter  into  negociations  with 
the  Queen  of  Great  Britain  to  prevail  on  her  to  abdicate  the 
throne  of  that  nation.  And  why?  Because  affairs  of  state 
do  not  belong  to  women.  Now,  if  this  petition  had  been 
sent  to  the  honorable  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations,  I  really  do  not  see,  with  his  notions,  how  he 
could  have  refused  to  present  it.  (A  laugh.)  But  I  de- 
clined the  presentation  of  it  because  I  feared  that  there 
might  be  a  portion  of  the  House  who  would  not  perceive 
in  such  a  petition  the  satire  which  [  thought  was  intended 
as  a  serious  proposition.  1  do  not  intend  to  put  the  House 
to  the  trial  of  that  matter,  or  myself  in  an  attitude  of  com- 
ing under  the  censure  of  this  House  for  treason,  in  offering 
such  advice  to  the  President ;  or  at  least  as  becoming  the 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS.  81 

cause  of  a  war  with  England.  For  when  the  Government 
of  one  country  addresses  the  Sovereign  of  another  with  a 
request  to  abdicate  the  throne,  it  is  a  pretty  serious  affair. 
In  that  point  of  view  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  present 
the  paper  ;  but,  in  the  other,  I  think  I  might  have  done  so 
with  great  propriety  and  effect.  And  even  now,  as  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  appears  to 
sympathise  in  feeling  and  sentiment  with  the  petitioner,  if 
bethinks  it  might  be  serviceable  to  present  the  paper,  I  will 
cheerfully  communicate  it  to  him."  (A  laugh.) 

During  the  last  year,  several  Halls  of  State 
Legislatures  have  been  granted  to  the  abolitionists 
for  their  meetings,  while  the  churches  have  remained 
closed  against  them.  The  aspect  of  these  assem- 
blages has  been  very  remarkable,  from  the  union 
of  religious  and  political  action  witnessed  there.  But 
the  most  extraordinary  spectacle  of  all — a  spectacle 
perhaps  unrivalled  in  the  history  of  the  world — 
was  the  address  of  Angelina  Grimke  before  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  Some 
have  likened  it  to  the  appeal  of  Hortensia  to  the 
Roman  Senate;  but  others  have  truly  observed 
that  the  address  of  Angelina  Grimke  was  far  the 
nobler  of  the  two.  as  she  complained  not  as  the 
voice  of  a  party  remonstrating  against  injuries  done 
to  itself,  but  as  the  advocate  of  a  class  too  degraded 
and  helpless  to  move  or  speak  on  its  own  behalf. 
The  gentle  dignity  of  the  speaker's  manner,  and 
the  power  of  statement  and  argument  shown  in  her 
address,  together  with  the  righteousness  of  her 
cause,  won  the  sympathies  of  as  large  an  audience 
as  the  State  House  would  contain,  and  bore  down 
all  ridicule,  prejudice,  and  passion.  Two  emotions 
divided  the  vast  assemblage  of  hearers  : — sympathy 
in  her  cause,  and  veneration  for  herself.  The  only 
fear  now  entertained  by  the  abolitionists  with  regard 
to  the  cause  in  the  leading  State  of  Massachusetts, 
is  lest  it  should  become  too  flourishing,  arid  lose 
something  of  its  rectitude  in  its  prosperity. 


82  PROSPECTS   OF  THE   ABOLITIONISTS. 

The  history  of  this  struggle  seems  to  yield  a  few 
inferences  which  must,  we  think,  be  evident  to  all 
impartial  minds ;  and  which  are  as  important  as 
they  are  clear.  One  is,  that  this  is  a  struggle  which 
cannot  subside  till  it  has  prevailed.  If  this  be 
true,  the  consequence  of  yielding  to  it  would  be 
the  saving  of  a  world  of  guilt  and  woe.  Another 
is,  that  other  sorts  of  freedom,  besides  emancipa- 
tion from  slavery,  will  come  in  with  it ,  that  the 
aristocratic  spirit  in  all  its  manifestations  is  Toeing 
purged  out  of  the  community  ; — that  with  every 
black  slave  a  white  will  be  also  freed.  Another  is. 
that  republicanism  is  in  no  degree  answerable  for 
the  want  of  freedom  and  of  peace  under  which  the 
American  nation  is  now  suffering  ; — that,  on  the 
contrary,  the  turbulence  and  tyranny  are  the  im- 
mediate offspring  of  the  old-world,  feudal,  European 
spirit  which  still  lives  in  the  institution  assailed, 
and  in  the  bosoms  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  coun- 
try, while  the  bulwarks  of  the  Constitution,  the 
true  republicans,  are  the  puctcemen,"  the  suffer- 
ers, the  moral  soldiers,  who  have  gone  out  armed 
only  with  faith,  hope,  and  charity.  Another  is, 
that  the  colored  people  have  a  promising  morale  on 
which  to  ground  their  civilization.  Their  whole 
conduct  affords  evidences  of  generosity,  patience, 
and  hopefulness,  from  which  fine  results  of  char- 
acter may  be  anticipated,  whenever  this  unfortu- 
nate race  shall  have  leave  to  exert  their  unfettered 
energies  under  circumstances  of  average  fairness. 

It  is  a  wide  world  that  we  live  in,  as  wonderful 
in  the  diversity  of  its  moral  as  of  its  natural  feat- 
ures. A  just  survey  of  the  whole  can  leave  little 
doubt  that  the  abolitionists  of  the  United  States  are 
the  greatest  people  now  living  and  moving  in  it. 
There  is  beauty  in  the  devotedness  of  the  domestic 
life  of  every  land  ;  there  is  beauty  in  the  liberality 
of  the  philosophers  of  the  earth,  in  the  laborious- 


PROSPECTS. OF  THE  ABOLITIONISTS.  83 

ness  of  statesmen,  in  the  beneficence  of  the  wealthy, 
in  the  faith  and  charity  of  the  poor.  All  these 
graces  flourish  among  this  'martyr  company,  and 
others  with  them,  which  it  is  melting  to  the  very 
soul  to  contemplate.  To  appreciate  them  fully, 
one  must  be  among  them.  One  must  hear  their 
diversity  of  tongue — from  the  quaint  Scripture 
Phraseology  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  classical  lan- 
guage of  the  scholar — to  estimate  their  liberality. 
One  must  witness  the  eagerness  with  which  each 
strives  to  bring  down  the  storm  upon  his  own  head 
to  save  his  neighbor,  and  to  direct  any  transient 
sunshine  into  his  friend's  house  rather  than  his 
own,  to  understand  their  generosity.  One  must  see 
the  manly  father  weeping  over  his  son's  blighted 
prospects,  and  the  son  vindicating  his  mother's  in- 
sulted name,  to  appreciate  their  disinterestedness. 
One  must  experience  something  of  the  soul-sick- 
ness and  misgiving  caused  by  popular  hatred,  and 
of  the  awful  pangs  of  an  apprehended  violent  death, 
to  enter  fully  into  their  heroism.  Those  who  are 
living  in  peace  afar  off  can  form  but  a  faint  con- 
ception of  what  it  is  to  have  no  respite,  no  pros- 
pect of  rest,  of  security,  of  success,  within  any 
calculable  time.  The  grave,  whether  it  yawns 
beneath  his  feet,  or  lies  on  the  far  horizon,  is,  as 
they  well  know,  their  only  resting-place  ;  adversity 
is  all  around  them,  like  the  whirlwind  of  the 
desert.  But,  if  all  this  can  be  scarcely  conceived 
of  at  a  distance,  neither  can  their  bright  faces  be 
seen  there.  Nowhere  but  among  such,  can  an 
array  of  countenances  be  beheld  so  little  lower  than 
the  angels.'  Ordinary  social  life  is  spoiled  to  them  ; 
but  another  which  is  far  better  has  grown  up  among 
them.  They  had  more  life  than  others  to  begin 
with,  as  the  very  fact  of  their  enterprise  shows ; 
and  to  them  that  have  much  shall  more  be  given. 
They  are  living  fast  and  loftily.  The  weakest  of 


1SIM37 

/63J 

81  PROSPECTS   OP  THE  ABOLITIONISTS. 

m} 

them  who  drops  into  the  grave  worn  out,  and  the 
youngest  that  lies  murdered  on  his  native  republi- 
can soil,  has  enjoyed  a  richer  harvest  of  time,  a 
larger  gift  out  of  eternity,  than  the  octogenarian 
self-seeker,  however  he  may  have  attained  his 
ends.  These  things,  as  branches  of  general 
truths,  may  be  understood  at  the  distance  of  half 
the  globe.  Let  us  not,  therefore,  wait,  as  it 
has  been  the  .world's  custom  to  wait,  for  another 
century  to  greet  the  confessors  and  martyrs  who 
stretch  out  their  strong  arms  to  bring  down  Heaven 
upon  our  earth ;  but  even  now,  before  they  have 
stripped  off  care  and  sorrow  with  their  mortal 
frame. — even  now,  while  sympathy  may  cheer  and 
thanks  may  animate,  let  us  make  our  reverent  con- 
gratulations heard  over  the  ocean  which  divides  us 
from  the  spiritual  potentates  of  our  age. 

H.  M. 


